Atlanta in 10 years?

[jhsrichards]

Yes traffic problems are constantly being addressed. Just not before they need to be. Georgia's DOT is one of the best in the southeast, but it needs more money to keep up with the growth. And anyone who thinks that widening roads does NOT help traffic problems should try and see what traffic is like if an interstate's lanes are reduced from 8 to 4. I'm sure you would enjoy the additional hour you spend in gridlock.

[SEAandATL]

How far do you think the beltline project will have come along in 10 years?

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

BINGO!

Ask around - there are those who feel Atlanta will be "Detroit 2025" in the coming years. Bubbles can only grow so much before they burst.

Detroit suffered from being dependent on one major industry and Atlanta is more diverse economically and already ahead of Detroit. I think what we are looking at is that Atlanta has the potential of being like NYC, Chicago vs Atlanta being like Boston or Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, Chicago and Phoenix are great cities, but they aren't to the caliber of Chicago or NYC. From a land value and liveability perspective, I'd hope more for the Chicago/NYC option. Three major things stand in the way:
* Savannah needs to grow as a seaport and Atlanta has to connect to Savannah with high speed train so it's essentially the same metro area.
* Vacation areas reachable without cars. Ditto for the high speed train to Savannah.
* Rail transit in the inner metro. Atlanta made a good start decades ago, but needs to continue. NYC and Chicago had a well-developed rail system in the early 90s.

Originally Posted by jhsrichards

Yes traffic problems are constantly being addressed. Just not before they need to be. Georgia's DOT is one of the best in the southeast, but it needs more money to keep up with the growth. And anyone who thinks that widening roads does NOT help traffic problems should try and see what traffic is like if an interstate's lanes are reduced from 8 to 4. I'm sure you would enjoy the additional hour you spend in gridlock.

I don't disagree with you that more lanes help, but what I say when it comes to highway lanes, "If you build it, they will come". The more lanes you add, the more they build and you only get a decade out of it, if that. With rail, it also supports high density, however the people that move in are pedestrians and not drivers, and thus it doesn't add to road congestion. I have noticed 3 general purpose lanes is a good rule of thumbs for highways (just like 3 houses in monopoly :-) ) -- any more than 3 lanes (aside from at interchanges) and you get diminishing returns. Sure, four lanes helps, but not like adding the 3rd lane to a 2 lane highway. At the point 3 lanes have been added, it's time to think about adding other forms of lanes. There are some portions of 285 that have something like 11 lanes. Not very well designed.

Now, what won't work in the 'burbs is to hope people walk over to the passenger rail station from their homes. We are going to need HUGE parking garages. However, if I were out in Kenessaw, and I had the option to drive a couple miles, park, and hop on a train, then I'd do it.

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

How far do you think the beltline project will have come along in 10 years?

I think it'll be splotchy, but will come within 10-20% of the original vision. The reason it won't reach 100% is probably because things will change between now and the currently drawn boundaries may not make sense in some areas 10 years from now, like if some building is sitting in the way that isn't there now from a developer who won't be paying attention prior to hiring architects, then won't cooperate and build a tunnel through their building after their architects had already designed it. Maybe will end up to be more of a set of partial rings that almost connect than a belt.

Originally Posted by AtlantaCruiser

I think the growth of this city will continue to decline (respective to prior #'s).

You mean start to decline? Growth has only picked up from the start of the decade, aside from what will be a temporary downturn due to the national mortgage crisis. Still, even with that, there are some major things going on in some areas. Someone just paid $8 million for 3 acres in Cumberland, and there are 6 highrise planned for that area. Buckhead is slowing down now because it has been built like crazy for the last 5 years. There's still PLENTY of open land in the city limits and immediate suburbs (except to the North) and nothing to prevent intense suburban development in the bottom half of the city. Growth will slow in the North and won't pick up again unless the infrastructure is improved and rail is built. It has reached the saturation point of what roads can do, and even though there is still plenty of room even in the North, growth will be steady and slow from this point.

What we're looking at is what 10 years from now will look like if something isn't done about the fact that rail hasn't been expanded for almost two decades.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by netdragon

Detroit suffered from being dependent on one major industry and Atlanta is more diverse economically and already ahead of Detroit. I think what we are looking at is that Atlanta has the potential of being like NYC, Chicago vs Atlanta being like Boston or Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, Chicago and Phoenix are great cities, but they aren't to the caliber of Chicago or NYC. From a land value and liveability perspective, I'd hope more for the Chicago/NYC option. Three major things stand in the way:
* Savannah needs to grow as a seaport and Atlanta has to connect to Savannah with high speed train so it's essentially the same metro area.
* Vacation areas reachable without cars. Ditto for the high speed train to Savannah.
* Rail transit in the inner metro. Atlanta made a good start decades ago, but needs to continue. NYC and Chicago had a well-developed rail system in the early 90s.



I don't disagree with you that more lanes help, but what I say when it comes to highway lanes, "If you build it, they will come". The more lanes you add, the more they build and you only get a decade out of it, if that. With rail, it also supports high density, however the people that move in are pedestrians and not drivers, and thus it doesn't add to road congestion. I have noticed 3 general purpose lanes is a good rule of thumbs for highways (just like 3 houses in monopoly :-) ) -- any more than 3 lanes (aside from at interchanges) and you get diminishing returns. Sure, four lanes helps, but not like adding the 3rd lane to a 2 lane highway. At the point 3 lanes have been added, it's time to think about adding other forms of lanes. There are some portions of 285 that have something like 11 lanes. Not very well designed.

Now, what won't work in the 'burbs is to hope people walk over to the passenger rail station from their homes. We are going to need HUGE parking garages. However, if I were out in Kenessaw, and I had the option to drive a couple miles, park, and hop on a train, then I'd do it.



I think it'll be splotchy, but will come within 10-20% of the original vision.

nettie...I am so impressed with your posts on this thread. You're a star.

[plessthanpointohfive]

ditto - I've had the very same thought.

The main thing to save Atlanta, or to really make Atlanta "pop" will be rail.

We just have to deal with the Atlanta-haters in the state who don't want the city to grow - not matter how much revenue it brings and is re-distributed to them....

[Vampgrrl]

Every state in the south hates it's major city if not the nation.

Atlanta has got to do a better job of transit...I'd ideally (far into the future) love to see Atlanta ban cars off the Interstate in certain areas especially downtown, and use rail more to get into town and a robust streetcar system in the city itself.

Again UA could be a real jewel but it's not, and restrictions on retail, bars, clubs should be loosened for the downtown area as much as possible. I'm unsure if it could work but anything is better than the sterile enviroment that's there now.