MARTA: Toward An Effective, Open Giant

E xperience at MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) can be instructive to public managers, both those contemplating startup efforts of their own, as well as those managers interested in specific applications of organizational humanism in public agencies.' Authorized by a 1971 referendum, MARTA sought to gear up quickly to launch a program whose estimated cost was $1.3 billion, and whose developmental phase was projected to cover better part of a decade. MARTA thus qualifies as the biggest game in town, and is in fact largest regional public project since early TVA days.