It's lights out on Atlanta interstates (2014, neighborhood, buy)

[jsvh]

It's lights out on Atlanta interstates - Atlanta Business Chronicle
City says it could take another year to get interstate lights back on | 11alive.com

Three key things from the articles:
-About half the lights on Atlanta interstates are out.
-They originally severely underestimated the problem.
-They are hoping to fix them by 2014.

This is a big safety problem that also made the region looks bad. That we can't even keep the lights on. So glad to hear it is something that they are working to fix.

[cqholt]

Proper freeway lighting is very much needed.

[Mal93]

While I love the considerable aesthetic and safety improvements along our roadways in the past few years (including the connector bridges project), it seems like the the DOT/GDOT/City is often hiding behind these expenditures almost in denial when it comes to maintenance. I see roadside plantings, asphalt gores ripped up and replaced with brick, decorative street lighting installed-- while potholes, poor pedestrian crossing, and interstate lights remain unaddressed. Obviously I am not up on the intricacies of funding between the various agencies/jurisdictions in charge, but if I had to choose between decorative plantings or turning the lights on at an expressway exit, I'd go with safety first.

Its kind of like saying you are going to clean the kitchen, but instead buy new curtains and glassware first while the dishes pile up and the floor stays dirty.

[cqholt]

I see roadside plantings, asphalt gores ripped up and replaced with brick, decorative street lighting installed-- while potholes, poor pedestrian crossing, and interstate lights remain unaddressed.

Most of the streetscapes improvements in Atlanta are paid by CID.

[kasuga888]

I remember people wanted them out to save a dime. The claim was that headlights were sufficent! LOL I guess they never drove around at night or during rain.

[ATLTJL]

Yup, there were people on this board, I don't remember who, that made that argument.

There was even someone who made the crazy argument that streetlights reflect off of water after it rains and create dangerous glare.

It's ridiculous. Scientific studies have proven that lights on interstates reduce the severity of accidents. So that's the only argument that I really need.

[brownhornet]

Yea I remember pointing out how ridiculous the stretch between downtown and windy hill is on 75 with all of the lights off and people said they preferred it on here. Never made much sense to me either.

[toll_booth]

But it cawsts too much! Them streetlights is from the librul big guv'mint! Soshalist streetlights! And they's cameras in thar and they's watchin' you!

[OneTrickNet]

Did the CID pay for all the new overhead signs on 75? Just curious... I didn't see anything wrong with the old signs so I'm not sure why they replaced them all.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by OneTrickNet

Did the CID pay for all the new overhead signs on 75? Just curious... I didn't see anything wrong with the old signs so I'm not sure why they replaced them all.

...I think that the new overhead signs may be as a result of the Feds mandating that all of the older and existing green exit signs eventually be replaced with new green exit signs that are more reflective in the dark, have thicker lettering and exit number tabs that indicate which side of the road one will need to exit from (like exit number tabs on the upper-left of exit signs for left-hand exits and exit number tabs on the upper-right for right-hand exits, etc), particularly along stretches of highway with HOV lanes that have left-hand exits.

I think that the replacement of those signs was brought about after that horrendous bus accident in 2007 where many members of an Ohio college baseball team where killed and badly injured after the bus driver drove off the top of the Northside Drive overpass off of I-75 southbound almost at full-speed (in the neighborhood of 70 mph).

The bus driver drove off of the end of the Northside Drive HOV exit ramp and crashed the bus onto the freeway below at nearly full-speed after thinking that the Northside Drive HOV ramp was actually the ramp to continue south in the I-75 SB HOV lane because unclear advance overhead signage on I-75 SB.

After that deadly accident, which was one of many accidents along that stretch of road (that seemed to have been caused by unclear HOV signage on I-75 south that confused out-of-town drivers and drivers unfamiliar with the road), the Feds and the media really lit a fire under the Georgia Department of Transportation to put up new overhead signage along that stretch of highway where traffic exits to the left out of the HOV lanes.