Spotlight on: Denise Starling, Executive Director at Livable Buckhead, has spent 20+ years collaborating with business and community leaders to guide this Atlanta neighborhood towards sustainability. Her leadership has won a dozen of awards for exemplary city planning, including the Buckhead Business Association's “Bullish on Buckhead” award and the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Environmental Awards “Emerging Leader” honor.
Starling has made it her mission to reduce congestion in Buckhead. To this end, she designed and launched the Buc, Atlanta's first on-demand microtransit service. This initiative addresses local transit gaps by connecting Buckhead residents to fixed-route transportation and helping them get to essential destinations car-free. Additionally, she has secured $40 million for traffic mitigation improvements in the neighborhood.
You’ve been running Buckhead's transportation since 1999. Tell us a bit about your career path and how you navigate your professional progression as a city leader over the years.
DS: I am one of those weird people that actually does what they went to school for! I studied architecture as an undergraduate at Georgia Institute of Technology, figured out I didn’t want to draw toilet details for the rest of my life, so I took some classes in city planning and found out I loved it. I focused on transportation and developed an in-depth knowledge of the new (at the time) transportation funding bill ISTEA – the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. One of my professors worked at Atlanta Regional Commission and he recruited me to begin my career there.
I began with bike planning, moved into transit and then into air quality policy which included telling the region we had lost our federal highway funds because we hadn’t made progress on reducing harmful pollutants. (That was fun.) At ARC I also negotiated policies with heads of every major state and federal entity related to transportation and the environment, which is pretty great experience in your first job.
From there I was recruited for a brief stint in the private sector with consulting firm Day Wilburn & Associates doing transportation and transit plans for local government clients. After a brief jump to an alternative fuels nonprofit, I landed in Buckhead to start the transportation management association and the Buc shuttle and have been there ever since. My role in Buckhead has grown over time as we have found new areas of need to address and built the organization from nothing to the 10-person shop it is today. The bottom line is if I get bored…we try something new!
What inspired you and your team to think differently about transportation in Atlanta? And what led you to look for a new way to offer transportation to your community?
DS: Short answer: boredom and competitiveness.
After more than 10 years filled with funding cuts and service revamps, I had “lost that loving feeling” for the fixed-route service. What was once my pride and joy and totally cutting edge was now old hat and not worth the effort. With the service on the chopping block I knew I had one last shot to revive it, and I heard about tech-driven options that we needed to explore.
We began sniffing around, connected with Via and found that the new technology solved our problems, allowed us to expand our area, be the leaders in innovation again and get back to having some fun with it. I am proud of it again!
How did your team approach designing the Buc to meet your community’s needs and what were the largest goals when launching the service initially?
DS: The initial Buc service, started in 2003, was designed to combat the traffic generated by the burgeoning commercial center.
The Buc provided connectivity between the district’s retail, employment and entertainment opportunities as well as last-mile connectivity to MARTA. Over time, it morphed into a service solely offering last-mile connectivity. In recent years, the addition of significant multifamily development and remote work has shifted our focus back to serving multiple audiences (residents, workers and visitors) getting around the district during the day.
Did you coordinate with local transit agencies at all when making decisions about service design? Why or why not?
DS: Absolutely! We operate in MARTA’s service area, so we wanted to complement rather than compete with their service. We have specifically designed the Buc to provide access to MARTA rail stations and bus stops.
How does this investment in transit compare to other investments a city could make to improve job access? How does the city think about ROI with transit?
DS: ROI is a tough one for a community improvement district when it comes to transit because the dollars aren’t leveraged like they can be with other transportation projects using federal funds.
We get creative in how we define its value by looking at things such as emissions reductions, contribution to attracting groups to local hotels, community perception, economic development…any way we can say the Buc was part of the solution, we claim it. The shuttle is just one part of a balanced transportation system and the expenditure is best looked at holistically.
What other projects aside from the Buc does your team work on? How do those projects relate and/or overlap to the Buc, an on-demand service?
DS: We have our hands in a little bit of everything in Buckhead and we intentionally look for opportunities to cross-pollinate between our projects.
We led the creation of the two special public interest zoning districts that guide development in Buckhead and we review proposed projects to ensure compliance.
We lead the addition of park space including the design and construction of one of the region’s most notable greenways – PATH400 – a 7.2-mile multi-use trail that goes from the south side of Buckhead to outside the Perimeter.
We serve as the trusted source of information in the community engaging over 15,000 individuals with our various newsletters, publications and social media.
We lead sustainability initiatives for the community ranging from recycling to alternative commutes to embodied carbon reduction.
What are your top takeaways and advice for cities that also look to upgrade their transit system? (funding, procurement, planning, etc)
DS: Don’t start a service before the demand is there. “Build it and they will come” may work for a Field of Dreams, but if people see a transit bus that isn’t full they are very quick to deem it a failure. And finally, keep the challenges and frustrations to yourself. Don’t give people an excuse to poo poo the system…just smile and wave.
Congratulations on hitting 50,000 all time rides through the service! What’s your next goal for the Buc?
DS: Since COVID, nobody really knows how to project transit ridership, so I stay focused on seeing continued growth. The key metrics I watch are: 1) New riders…as long as we are seeing new people coming in and improving rider retention, then we are in good shape. 2) Cost per rider… if we aren’t cheaper than Uber we don’t need to be doing the service.
Can you give advice for city leadership considering launching transit on their own (without the help of a transit agency?)
DS:
- The vehicle really matters – our swanky Mercedes-Benz Sprinters are very well received.
(editor’s note: we don’t always need a fancy vehicle; instead, we need the right vehicle for the service and rider population.)
- Marketing, marketing, marketing – there is no such thing as too much marketing.
- Fund it and stay the course – go into it with a growth mindset. It is a great problem to have too much demand and need more service. Be prepared to add to it to keep it healthy and thriving.
Could you describe your level of involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Buc?
DS: I have been extremely hands on with the Buc from day one – even calling it my first born! That engagement has changed over time as we have moved through different operational configurations and our staffing has grown internally. These days I have an incredible marketing team that is having fun with the service and a new planner on board who is watching trends. But being a control freak and transportation nerd, I still have an eye on it. Whenever I feel too detached I dive into the data portal to see what is happening and shake things up a little!
