Missed Woodstock's Transportation Open House? Here Is the Recap and How I Filled Out the Survey.

By Martha Jean Schindler, NGA CAN Founder

Last night the City of Woodstock held its open house on the 2026 Comprehensive Transportation Plan. If you missed it, the city walked through some of its key projects. The full plan is about 500 pages long, and you can read the whole thing here: https://www.woodstockga.gov/your_government/departments/public_works/transportation_plan.php. Right now the city posts it only as an online flipbook that is hard to download or print, so we have asked the city for a downloadable, printable version and will share it here as soon as we have one. It was presented by Rob Hogan, Assistant City Manager for Public Works at the City of Woodstock.

A few things stood out. We can and should give feedback and ideas on anything we think is important to the transportation plan. But the city is rolling this plan out in phases, and from what we understood at the meeting, this first phase will not show much in the way of pedestrian or bike lane work. The city also told us it is not going to take on rules around ebikes at this point. There is statewide legislation around them and still a lot of discussion about how to actually handle them, and that is changing quickly enough that the city does not feel it makes sense to create its own rules or systems yet.

That is all the more reason to weigh in now, so the things we care about get prioritized as the plan moves through its later phases. Could not make it last night? You can still be heard. Fill out the city's transportation survey here: https://cms9.revize.com/revize/woodstockganew/your_government/departments/public_works/ctp_input.php

Below is how I filled out that survey, and the thinking behind each answer, so you have a starting point.

One ask before you begin: please do not copy this word for word. The city can spot a stack of identical form letters, and your own words and your own streets carry far more weight than anything I can write. Use this as a guide, then say it the way only you can. The open ended boxes are where you make the difference.

How do you experience Woodstock?

What I put: I am a resident.

Why: Just check what is true for you. Resident, worker, student, visitor, it all counts, and it helps the city see who is actually speaking up. We sometimes have folks who live outside of an area ask, "If I'm not a resident, does it matter if I fill this out?" The answer is, if any part of your life touches the city, you have the right to express an opinion. The city can decide who to prioritize.

What types of transportation improvements are most important to you? (check all)

What I put: Sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, Bicycle lanes and trails, Traffic calming, and Other. In the Other box I wrote that we need public transit, a downtown circulator or trolley, and a real connection to regional transit.

Why: I left Road widening and Public parking unchecked on purpose. We already pour money into moving and storing cars. And did you notice that public transit is not even an option on this list? That gap is a huge contributing factor to our crowded, backed up roads, so I used "Other" to put it back on the table. If transit matters to you, do the same.

Which area(s) of town should be the top priority?

What I put: Downtown and the corridors that connect neighborhoods to it, plus connecting Woodstock outward to Canton, Roswell, Cobb, and the regional network.

Why: Improvements should tie the city together and link us to our neighbors, not just patch one intersection. If there is a part of town you move through every day, name it.

Do you consider Woodstock pedestrian friendly?

What I put: Not safe or convenient. In the comment I said downtown is walkable but the rest of the city is not, the sidewalks do not connect, and we need a funded citywide sidewalk and bike lane master plan.

Why: Be honest about your own experience. If you have ever felt unsafe walking or biking somewhere here, say so plainly. Pretending everything is fine tells the city to keep doing what it is doing.

The few times I've tried to use cycling as a way to travel through the city or run errands, I've found it to be way too dangerous. In other places I lived, I was able to trade my car for a bicycle for things like errands and commuting. We do have a lot of people who cycle here, but whether it is safe to do so is highly dependent on where you live and where you're trying to cycle to. Drivers here don't seem to understand the concept of sharing the road; we have almost no bike lanes; the trail systems don't go far enough; and sidewalks, which you're technically not supposed to ride on anyway, stop and start and just... drop off.

Is there a specific location that needs pedestrian improvements?

What I put: I pointed to Towne Lake Parkway, a wide, busy road the city is widening for cars while pedestrian crossings and trail connections lag behind.

Why: This is the single most important box to make your own. Name the exact corner, crossing, or stretch of sidewalk that scares you or your kids. Where does the sidewalk just end and force you into the road? Where is there no safe place to cross? A real spot from a real resident beats anything general.

How do you feel about traffic flow in and around Downtown?

What I put: I avoid driving downtown because of traffic. In the comment I said the fix is not more car capacity, that the city should coordinate the signals we already paid for and give people real alternatives, and that it should stop treating busy state roads as untouchable when it already partners with GDOT on them.

Why: Downtown traffic is rough, and it is fine to say so. But more lanes will not fix it, fewer trips will. And do not let anyone tell you a corridor cannot be improved just because it is a state road. The city works with GDOT when it wants to.

What innovative strategies (adaptive signals, real time parking) would you like to see?

What I put: Actually turn on and coordinate the adaptive signals we already installed, join the state regional signal timing program, and invest in a circulator and regional transit connections instead of chasing parking apps. Base it on real data.

Why: We already paid for smart technology. Woodstock has had a Smart Master Plan since 2020, ran a Smart Corridor Study, and installed GRIDSMART cameras across the city that detect lanes, count traffic, and record it all in fifteen minute intervals. The city even won an international smart cities award for the plan. The entire point of that system is to let the city run coordinated, optimized signal timing. So here is the real question: If we have the cameras, the data, the plan, and the awards, why do we still sit through strings of red lights that plainly are not talking to each other? The real innovation is not another gadget or a parking app. It is finishing the job we already paid for, turning on and proving out the signal coordination this system was sold to deliver, and putting that same energy into giving people options besides driving. Ask the city to show its work: what is actually coordinated today, on which corridors, and when does the rest come online.

How important is investing in options other than cars?

What I put: Very important. In the comment I said this is the top priority, that we are a metro Atlanta city with no transit and no MARTA, and that we should build the walking, biking, and transit network before approving more car dependent development.

Why: This is the heart of it, so let me be direct. The pushback you will hear most is that transit cannot work in a place like Woodstock, that we are too spread out, too suburban, too small. That is simply false. Wilson, North Carolina is a small city about our size that replaced its empty fixed route buses with on demand microtransit. Ridership tripled, the cost per trip dropped almost 40 percent, and half of riders said it helped them keep or find a job. Closer to home, Cobb, Gwinnett, and our own Cherokee County already run transit. The question was never whether transit can work here. It can. The question is whether we want it.

So why the resistance? Much of it comes down to three things: ignorance, classism, and racism. Ignorance, because people assume it cannot be done when it is being done all over the country. Classism, because there is an old and ugly idea that buses are only for poor people, something transit managers in small southern towns will say to your face. And racism, because in metro Atlanta the fight over transit has always been tangled up in race. By the documented record, MARTA was mockingly called "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta" for decades, Gwinnett rejected it three separate times under what researchers called racialized rhetoric, and in Cobb the opponents warned that transit would bring crime and low income housing, a fear academics have repeatedly debunked. That history is well-documented, and pretending it isn't is part of how it keeps winning.

One important caveat. None of this means we should hold up MARTA as the model we want. MARTA has been starved and mismanaged for years, in no small part because the suburbs refused to join or fund it, and it has become such a political lightning rod that it drowns out the whole conversation. We do not need MARTA to make the case. We need a downtown circulator, expanded Cherokee Area Transit, and a real connection to the region. Say this matters to you, and do not let anyone tell you our town is too good or too different for the thing that already works everywhere else.

Would you support reducing speed limits entering Downtown for golf cart mobility?

What I put: Maybe, it depends on the road. In the comment I said yes to lower speeds because slower streets are safer for everyone on foot and on bikes, but golf carts are not a transportation plan, they serve people who can afford them, and lower speeds should come paired with real transit and connected sidewalks.

Why: Lower speeds are genuinely good for safety, so I did not want to say no. But I also did not want to pretend golf carts are a transportation plan, because they are not. Here is the part worth saying out loud. A golf cart is a mostly optional and fairly expensive way to get around, which makes it, relatively speaking, a rich person's toy. And I have a hunch that if bicycles were seen as a rich person's toy, we would already have a lot more bike lanes, because this city tends to prioritize what wealthier residents want. Woodstock wrote an ordinance and a registration program to expand golf cart access years ago. It has done nothing close to that for bikes.

Meanwhile the reality on the ground is a mess. Kids tear around on ebikes at speeds that should not be allowed. Golf carts take up car sized parking spots and road space while topping out slower than traffic. In Woodstock they are only supposed to be driven on streets posted at twenty five miles an hour or less, and only by licensed drivers, yet we regularly see kids behind the wheel and adults who look like they are drinking and driving, both of which are already against the law. The rules exist. They just are not enforced.

So golf carts can be part of the plan. They should not be the plan, and they should not keep getting prioritized over the basic, affordable options that serve everyone: sidewalks, bike lanes, and transit. It says something that the city has done more for golf carts than for bicycles.

What specific improvement should be prioritized in Woodstock's transportation future?

What I put: Real public transportation. Bring back a downtown circulator or trolley, expand Cherokee Area Transit into Woodstock, connect us to the regional network, build it before more development, and ground it in real traffic studies and a public needs assessment.

Why: This is the most important box in the whole survey, which makes it the one to truly make your own. Whatever you believe should come first, put that. If it is transit, say transit. If it is safe sidewalks, one dangerous intersection, better bike access, or something I have not even mentioned, say that instead. There is no wrong answer here, only your answer. The city is asking what you want prioritized, so tell them what you actually want, in your own words. Please do not just echo me. The whole point is for them to hear a real range of residents, not a script.

Take the survey

Fill it out here: https://cms9.revize.com/revize/woodstockganew/your_government/departments/public_works/ctp_input.php

It takes about ten minutes. Use this guide to help you think about what is most important to you, then make every answer yours. The corner you actually worry about, the trip you actually dread, the option you actually wish existed. Give input the city cannot ignore.