According to Bloomberg,” nowhere do mid-century roadways and 21st congestion collide with such deadly force as in Atlanta where a tangle of twisting roadways and densely packed moving traffic combine to create America’s extreme tipping point.
Furthermore, according to a study by the American Transportation Research Institute: “more than 250 trucks have flipped over since 2001 on Atlanta roads and more than 200 people have died in truck rollovers in Georgia during that time.”
Working part-time as a delivery driver three days a week, I know a little something about Atlanta’s biggest enemy to sustainable growth: TRAFFIC CONGESTION>
There are several reasons for this tremendous surge in traffic congestion:
- The population for Metro Atlanta has increased dramatically from approximately 2 million around The Olympics in 1996 to 6 million at the present time.
- Apart from minor improvements, including the infamous inverted diamonds, delayed entrance on ramps to interstates, traffic calming measures and HOV toll roads, the road infrastructure is basically the same.
- Since the upturn in the economy a couple of years ago, the city has witnessed a vast increase in the construction of new developments. The modern trend these days is an emphasis on mixed use developments. Planners and architects are wrongfully assuming that citizens will live, work and play at the same location. This hypothesis works for a little while, but people change jobs and begin commuting again, shopping and eating habits continually change depending on the new fad
- The dramatic increase in trucks (sixteen wheelers in some instances) traversing the interstates seven days a week is overwhelming. There are certain regulations in which lanes trucks can legally use, but these are regularly ignored and abused.
- The interaction between car commuters and commercial trucks vying for time, space at great speed is a recipe for disaster. Accidents occur on a daily basis on the interstates. I285 forms a 60 mile loop around the metro Atlanta area, and just recently was voted the most dangerous interstate in the USA for accidents.
- Many commuters can be seen texting and sometimes holding a coffee while meandering their way through peak hour traffic. I’m sure other cities around the country experience a similar phenomenon, but we also have the “rubber neckers” who dramatically slow down to have a bird’s eye view of vehicles pulled over to the side by the police or as a result of a “fender bender.”
- We have just experienced nearly a month of heavy rain, and Atlanta motorists don’t handle inclement weather very well. Their solution is to speed up with the intention of getting home out of the rain as quickly as possible.
- On these overcast days when light is at a premium, motorists are loathe to switch their headlights on, and using their indicators to switch lanes is viewed as a sign of weakness to their machoism
- Police cars patrol the highways in pursuit of easy pickings. Jo Blow, the average motorist who has the temerity to exceed the speed limit by a few miles an hour, is an easy prey for speeding fines to load the coffers of County and City Governments while the boy racers and maniacs go their own sweet way causing mayhem in their wake
- Then we have the yellow peril appearing in the early morning and afternoons: a plethora of school buses hitting the highways to pick up children at numerous and various staging points around the city. Naturally they hold up traffic considerably which lead to frayed nerves among the commuters.
- The underground transportation system, MARTA, is a complete farce; totally inadequate to accommodate a burgeoning population.
What you may well ask is the solution? There isn’t a short term fix available unfortunately. It requires an extensive investment in improving the infrastructure. Somehow commercial traffic in the shape of monolithic trucks and commuter motorists have to be separated. At minimum, Atlanta needs another circular route, similar to I285 around the city, and a major extension to the MARTA system.
Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen anytime soon owing to the political and economic pressures that exist in this city. There are 10 counties in the Metro Atlanta region operating independently from one another who pay lip service to a proposal for a regional plan.
Memo to myself: move to another city, but do extensive research to prevent jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
