Residents and commissioners disagreed Tuesday morning during a pair of public hearings to discuss the potential expansion of the county’s on-demand “microtransit” service to south Cobb, Kennesaw and Acworth.

Since October 2024, the county’s CobbLinc system has offered CobbLinc Go, an on-demand transit service similar to rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, in a 26-mile-contiguous zone in south Cobb.

The service is in its second year of a two-year pilot program, with the option of extending service for a third year.

The commission held two public hearings Tuesday morning as it considers extending the program for another year, as well as expanding service to additional zones in south Cobb and north Cobb around Kennesaw and Acworth.

CobbLinc Go is operated through a third party, Via Transportation, at a fixed cost. Riders request a ride through an app, and drivers use minivans that can ferry up to five passengers. The service runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The existing south Cobb zone includes Wellstar Cobb Hospital, two high schools, several grocery stores, a library and a county recreation center.

The south Cobb expansion would encompass northern Mableton and add about five square miles into the existing service area. It’s bordered by Austell Road, Floyd Road and Veterans Memorial Highway.

The new zone in north Cobb would cover an area of about 31 square miles and contain downtown Acworth and Kennesaw, Kennesaw State University, Cobb County International Airport and Town Center Mall.

The south Cobb pilot program currently costs around $1.1 million annually to operate, with 70% of the money coming from state and federal grants and another 30% coming from county funds, the Marietta Daily Journal previously reported.

The state awarded a $3.84 million grant to help fund the north Cobb pilot program, according to previous reporting. Cobb County is required to match the grant with at least $960,000 in local funds.

Because two new service zones are being considered, commissioners held a separate public hearing for each, although they were scheduled back-to-back.

Speakers during Tuesday’s public hearings were divided on the issue, with supporters arguing that transit expansion is a necessary public service to ensure everyone in the county can make it to work, drop kids off at school and run errands.

Greg Crisp, a Kennesaw resident, said the microtransit program offers accessible and affordable transit options for a wide range of residents, including those who are elderly or have disabilities.

Crisp said he has an aging mother who grew up in rural south Georgia, and as a result, isn’t always comfortable using more traditional public transportation options like buses. He said the microtransit service offers a way for her to get around that feels more familiar to her.

“Ride-sharing is something she would be very amenable to, I know a lot of other people would as well,” Crisp said. “I think we should do this. It’s important and it’s a good thing.”

Matt Stigall — Chairwoman Lisa Cupid’s appointee to the Cobb County Transit Advisory Board, who addressed the board in an individual capacity — said the microtransit service can be essential for people who don’t own cars, and helps keep the community moving and connected.

He pointed specifically to the fact that riders using the microtransit program can transfer from their CobbLinc Go trip to a bus trip for free.

“I think that by expanding this, we give people more access, more connections, and the ability also to connect with more fixed route services that they’re able to take throughout the region, whether it’s to their job, their healthcare appointment, their friends, their church, whatever it may be,” Stigall said. “It’s an overall benefit.”

Criticism

Others said it would be a poor use of taxpayer money, and that it goes against the wishes of county residents.

Christine Rozman, a Marietta resident, said Cobb County voters made it clear that they don’t want to expand transit when they voted down a proposal to add another 1% to the county’s sales tax in 2024 that would’ve provided funding to expand the county’s transit system.

About 62% of voters rejected that proposal, the Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST), which would have funded a countywide microtransit network.

Rozman also questioned the county transit system’s usage.

“It’s not what we want,” Rozman said. “Every time I see a bus going by when I’m out, they’re empty.”

Cupid pushed back against Rozman’s assertion, arguing that residents are not so quick to question taxpayer dollars going toward road improvements, even when those roads are lightly trafficked.

“I have driven down many a street in Cobb County that have been empty, and I’ve never heard anybody say, ‘What a waste of asphalt,’ because no car was on the street,” Cupid said. “But we look at a bus somebody’s not on at an immediate time and we say, ‘What a waste of service.’”

While the county transit system saw a decrease in ridership during and shortly after the pandemic, CobbLinc’s bus system has seen an increase in usage over the last two years, the Journal previously reported. In 2025, the bus system saw 1.4 to 1.9 million trips, depending on how the data was tallied.

Other speakers said they worry that expanding the service will cost too much money and tread into territory that isn’t the government’s responsibility.

Lance Lamberton, chairman of the Cobb Taxpayers Association, a local anti-tax group, said the program benefits a small number of people, and that it isn’t the duty of taxpayers to provide transportation due to the potential high cost.

“It is not — with all due respect — the taxpayer’s responsibility, or at least it should not be,” Lamberton told commissioners. “There are lots of other ways to get around the county, and that should be your responsibility, not ours.”

As the MDJ previously reported, microtransit, paratransit and the old FLEX service are considered “demand response” transit, and are more expensive and less efficient than buses running on fixed routes.

In 2024, CobbLinc spent $11.13 for every mile a passenger rode using on-demand transit, according to the National Transit Database. Regular, fixed-route buses, meanwhile, cost the system $5.66 per passenger mile.

Rides on CobbLinc Go are priced at $2.50 per trip, the same as a bus fare.

Democratic majority speaks

In addition to Cupid, the other two Democrats on the commission — Erick Allen and Monique Sheffield — spoke in favor of the expansion.

Allen said that he’s heard from many constituents who say transit is a concern for them, and who are supportive of expanding the microtransit program.

“I can tell you I’ve had conversations with far more people than showed up here today to talk against this that look at this as a critical lifeline for them just to get by,” Allen said. “For some people, it’s a necessity.”

Sheffield echoed a similar point, and said that just because not everyone uses a service doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.

“Transit is a service, much like parks, much like senior services,” Sheffield said. “We have close to 800,000 citizens in this county. Everybody’s not going to utilize all of the same services, but that does not mean we turn a deaf ear to and a blind eye to those who need those services.”

Commissioners didn’t take any action on the expansion Tuesday’s public hearings.

Drew Raessler, director of the Cobb Department of Transportation, said the board will vote on the expansions during its Aug. 25 meeting.

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