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For through Interstate traffic (which there is an overabundance of in the Atlanta region), I-285 can be (but is not always) a useful alternative to an I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector that is often severely-congested during peak hours.....Which is what a loop road like I-285 was intended for, to direct through Interstate traffic away from the densely-developed (and road infrastructure-limited) urban core.
Of course because Atlanta sits at the crossroads/confluence of two major north-south transcontinental superhighways (the northwest-southeast I-75 which connects the heavily-populated Upper Midwest with the explosively fast-growing Port of Savannah and heavily-developed Florida, and the northeast-southwest I-85 which connects the heavily-populated Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. with the heavily-industrialized Gulf Coast), the Atlanta metro region (which has grown to more than 6 million inhabitants) itself has generated much of the traffic that clogs the Interstate system through Atlanta.
When the loop road was first developed and built and for the first several years of its existence, I-285 was very much a viable alternative to the I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector because Atlanta had a much-smaller regional population and much less development that generated much less peak-hour traffic.
That is an excellent point about people having to use north-south surface streets because of the severe traffic congestion on the I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector through Downtown Atlanta. The dearth of surface road infrastructure and parallel north-south alternative routes (in a grid system that is found in other large major metro areas like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, L.A., Miami, Toronto and Chicago) is one of the major factors that contributes directly to the severe traffic congestion on the I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector.
That lack of through surface road infrastructure (and the inability to develop more surface road infrastructure, politically) within the area inside the I-285 Perimeter makes the presence of a very strong public transit option even all the more important for a very large major metro area like Atlanta.
We can't further expand the road network inside the I-285 Perimeter, but we can further expand the transit network by adding more trains and buses to existing transit lines and implementing and building more transit lines.
That's a great point about Houston's first outer loop, the I-610 Loop, being closer in to the center of the Houston metro region than the I-285 Perimeter is to the center of the Atlanta metro region.
But when the road was first proposed in the early 1930's and even when it was built in the mid 1950's, the I-610 Loop (then known as Loop 137 before the implementation of the Interstate system in 1956) served a Houston metro area that was significantly smaller in population and physical size and shape.
The I-610 Loop's much earlier development and construction (Houston's I-610 Loop first opened in about 1953 while Atlanta's I-285 Perimeter did not open until 1969) along with Houston's then-much smaller physical size might help to explain why it runs in a much smaller loop around the center of Houston than I-285 runs around the center of Atlanta (....Houston's I-610 Loop is 38 miles long while Atlanta's I-285 Perimeter is 64 miles long).
Also, even though Houston is a city that much like Atlanta, is known for its massive sprawling metropolitan development patterns and its lifestyle of extreme automobile-overdependence, Houston (largely because of much flatter topography, a much more comprehensive surface road network that is based much more closely on a grid and looser environmental protection regulations on real estate development) is a substantially denser and more compact metro region than Atlanta. While it is still sprawl by any and every measure, Houston's sprawl basically is much denser than Atlanta's sprawl.
What is also interesting is that the plans for Houston's second outer-loop, Beltway 8, were developed in the 1950's, many years before Atlanta's first outer loop, I-285, opened in 1969.
That 3rd Houston outer loop (TX Highway 99 Grand Parkway) is only about between 26-29 miles from Downtown Houston at its farthest point. Atlanta's erstwhile-proposed second outer loop, the Outer Perimeter highway, was proposed to be about 35 miles or so from Downtown Atlanta.....These stats illustrate just how much more Atlanta sprawls than Houston, a metro region considered to be an extremely sprawling metro region. Houston's 3rd outer loop is closer in than Atlanta's 2nd outer loop would have been.
I've heard a few oppositionist grumbles from environmentalists and locals over the years about the development of Houston's 3rd outer loop, the TX 99 Grand Parkway.
But because the terrain of the Houston area is much flatter and slightly less-wooded (especially to the northwest and west of Houston where the forests of the Gulf Coast Plain gives way to prairie) and because of the much different attitude towards road construction and because of the advance planning for the most part, that relatively minimal opposition has not been anywhere near successful in stopping the construction of Houston's 3rd outer loop in the way that opposing forces were very successful in stopping the construction of Atlanta's 2nd outer loop (the Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc) and dramatically altering Georgia's road construction policy in the Atlanta metro area.
Houston's grid beyond Loop 610 was pretty lousy. Starting in the early 80s they created a 25 year plan to connect various disconnected roads and widen others. It was part of a long range plan that included rail and mass transit. The vast majority of everything was done except for the commuter rail which was defeated at the polls.
Houston's grid beyond Loop 610 was pretty lousy. Starting in the early 80s they created a 25 year plan to connect various disconnected roads and widen others. It was part of a long range plan that included rail and mass transit. The vast majority of everything was done except for the commuter rail which was defeated at the polls.
With as large as Houston's developed area has grown to cover, it's hard to imagine that the city was ever small enough to have even just largely fit inside of the confines of a 38-mile-long circumferential road like the I-610 Loop (a land area of about 90 square miles).
Houston (along with other major urban areas in Texas) seems to be a metro region where road improvements, upgrades and expansions are not as difficult to execute as they can often be in the Atlanta region. Totally different culture out there when it comes to road infrastructure development.
I'm not surprised that the commuter rail proposal might have failed at the polls. Texas seems to have a culture of skepticism about transit (particularly rail transit) that is somewhat similar to the culture of skepticism towards transit in Metro Atlanta outside of the I-285 Perimeter.
There's plenty of space for outer loops along the Perimeter. Houston built the first stretch of their 3rd loop in 1994 and has really gotten into construction over the last 10 years. Its closer than Cartersville is to Atlanta and Houston is much more dense than Atlanta. George Bush Tollway (outer loop in Dallas) is fairly new and they are working on extending it down to I-30 in the east and through Arlington in the west (as Hwy 161). Again closer than Cartersville and in a denser area. Austin has converted US 71, US 290 and US 183 into freeways through developed areas far closer than I-285 in the last 20 years. North Carolina has been doing similar things.
I thought Atlanta missed a chance to encourage density in West Atlanta and undo the Connector mistake when Ft. McPherson closed. They could have split off I-85 to run through undeveloped and lightly utilized commercial property down to Ft. McPherson, used the west side of Ft. McPherson and then 166 over to 285 where it would join the current I-85. Toll it and have buses use it. ROW might have had dual use for rail as well.
The difference in Texas is they had these corridors marked for expansion for years before they actually converted them to expressways. Here in DFW I can remember 20 years ago the planned routes for both the Bush Turnpike (190) and the Sam Rayburn Tollway (121) being left undeveloped long before they were built. 121 was a two lane state road thru what is now a major commercial area turning into a satellite city at the junction of the Dallas North Tollway and nearby Preston Road. The intersection of 121 and Preston is where the regional Stonebriar Centre mall went in about 15 years ago. The other corners developed and I remember the centers way off the road on all sides. It was years before the access roads went in on either side of the two lane 121, then the limited access 6 lane toll road went in where the original two lane road sat.
Nothing like this has been planned out in the Atlanta area. Even when the Northern Arc was laid out, developers were building homes right in the path of it in Forsyth.
There have have been a couple rare exceptions and its usually more to do with county road building on some of their prioritized alignments (ie. Satellite Blvd in Gwinnett)
The most notable one now is the remainder of the Sugarloaf Pkwy extension from 316 past the Mall of Georgia. They long ago secured long parts of the right of way and deterred further development from other stretches.
You can see that narrow band of undeveloped right of way and purposefully unconnected subdivisions almost all the way from 316 and past the mall of Georgia to Peacthree Industrial Blvd.
The difference in Texas is they had these corridors marked for expansion for years before they actually converted them to expressways. Here in DFW I can remember 20 years ago the planned routes for both the Bush Turnpike (190) and the Sam Rayburn Tollway (121) being left undeveloped long before they were built. 121 was a two lane state road thru what is now a major commercial area turning into a satellite city at the junction of the Dallas North Tollway and nearby Preston Road. The intersection of 121 and Preston is where the regional Stonebriar Centre mall went in about 15 years ago. The other corners developed and I remember the centers way off the road on all sides. It was years before the access roads went in on either side of the two lane 121, then the limited access 6 lane toll road went in where the original two lane road sat.
Nothing like this has been planned out in the Atlanta area. Even when the Northern Arc was laid out, developers were building homes right in the path of it in Forsyth.
LOL! Not only were developers building new homes directly in the path of the Northern Arc at the behest of the county governments of Forsyth and Cherokee who were intentionally doing everything that they could to basically sabotage and undermine the road, but Cherokee County even went so far as to build a new high school (Creekview High School) and middle school (Creekland Middle School) almost directly in the proposed path of the Northern Arc.
Cherokee and (especially) Forsyth counties intentionally permitted as much new development as possible directly in and near the proposed path of the Northern Arc so as to make it much more difficult for the road to be built by the State of Georgia.
With as large as Houston's developed area has grown to cover, it's hard to imagine that the city was ever small enough to have even just largely fit inside of the confines of a 38-mile-long circumferential road like the I-610 Loop (a land area of about 90 square miles).
Houston (along with other major urban areas in Texas) seems to be a metro region where road improvements, upgrades and expansions are not as difficult to execute as they can often be in the Atlanta region. Totally different culture out there when it comes to road infrastructure development.
I'm not surprised that the commuter rail proposal might have failed at the polls. Texas seems to have a culture of skepticism about transit (particularly rail transit) that is somewhat similar to the culture of skepticism towards transit in Metro Atlanta outside of the I-285 Perimeter.
The two later mostly inner city, lower cost proposals passed.
The difference in Texas is they had these corridors marked for expansion for years before they actually converted them to expressways. Here in DFW I can remember 20 years ago the planned routes for both the Bush Turnpike (190) and the Sam Rayburn Tollway (121) being left undeveloped long before they were built. 121 was a two lane state road thru what is now a major commercial area turning into a satellite city at the junction of the Dallas North Tollway and nearby Preston Road. The intersection of 121 and Preston is where the regional Stonebriar Centre mall went in about 15 years ago. The other corners developed and I remember the centers way off the road on all sides. It was years before the access roads went in on either side of the two lane 121, then the limited access 6 lane toll road went in where the original two lane road sat.
Nothing like this has been planned out in the Atlanta area. Even when the Northern Arc was laid out, developers were building homes right in the path of it in Forsyth.
But isn't the growth inevitable? Those same sparsely developed areas will see sprawl regardless of what happens so why not at least plan for the future?
Yes growth will happen, but we can encourage infill and brownfield development, eg: BeltLine.
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