Intown traffic getting worse (Atlanta, Lenox: high crime, neighborhood, buy)

[CCATL]

Originally Posted by cparker73

We actually have an informal understanding in my office to try to not start a meeting before 9am or after 4pm because so many people are trickling in or out at those times. We have a strong telework culture, so it's not unusual for people to start filtering out at 3pm and dialing into meetings while they're on the road. It's a great way to get paid while being stuck in traffic or the school carpool line.

Stuff like this is one reason that we have a ridiculous number of distracted driving accidents in this city. Nobody should be dialing into a meeting while driving - they should be concentrating on driving.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I'm not a Millennial.

Prior to 9:30 is an awful time to set a meeting because you are likely forcing people into commuter traffic who may not otherwise have to be in it. That's a jerky thing to do when you could easily make it a 10:30 meeting instead and just avoid that problem.

Obviously, this doesn't apply if your meeting is internal only for people who are already in the office. Assuming you don't have flex time and everybody arrives by that time. If some people don't usually come to work until 10am to avoid traffic, you're being a tool by asking them to come in early to accommodate you.

A lot of professions do not work this way, though. I recall many a meeting that was held way before 9:30 am and way later than 4:00 pm. It was necessary to get the work done. And, I do not recall anyone complaining about that timing. I understand exactly what you are saying; however, I just don't think that timing is realistic in many instances. 9:00 to 5:00 just oftentimes doesn't cut it. When I first started out, I was expected to be at my desk around 7:30 or 8:00 am and work until around 6:30 or 7:00 pm. Oftentimes, it would be earlier or later, depending on what was going on. It wasn't unusual to have meetings that lasted well after 6:30 or 7:00. Did I really like that? Nopers. But, it was what we did, nonetheless.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by back2atl

9:30 is early? That sounds like millennial talk.

East west routes in the city are terrible. 14th street drove me nuts years ago, I really feel for anyone that has to commute on it now.

As I wrote yesterday, 14th St. is a TERRIBLE spot for gridlock that got worse by a factor of multiple times as I accumulated 32 years of working adjacent to it.
Related not only specifically to the mess of 14th but which really hurts Midtown overall is the disconnected & interrupted pattern of streets found in the partial grid in that area.
An obstacle none of us would ever trade away but which is symptomatic of the "interruption" I speak of is Piedmont Park. There's nothing we'd ever want to or be able to do to change it but just as a point of analysis, think about how it's location forces anyone driving trying to gain an east to west entry into Midtown, say to the major business area near 14th & Peachtree, to either come in via 10th St. or from well to the north from the intersection of Monroe Drive @ Piedmont & then to come south via Piedmont Avenue & on into 14th St.
Similarly, there are many other smaller gaps in the street grid pattern that will come to mind if one considers how often a turn must be made at an intersection because the street does not go through into the next intersection one block over. That of course, is largely due to the fact that development often occurred in a hap hazard manner exacerbated by gaps in time as adjacent blocks were laid out & then built up.
A couple of suggestions for "What to do?" here might give hope.
There is a proposal to extend 15th st. west on beyond it's ending intersection with W. Peachtree St., an extension of which is planned to given an additional HOV access point at the Connector but which would eliminate the current problem in that all west bound traffic on 15th St. is forced to turn right & go northbound on W. Peachtree. That intersection as it now stands is truly is one of the major problematic "gaps" in the grid!
And, something done about 8 years ago on Peachtree @ 11th St. NE. was the reduction in the traffic-clogging signal light delays there as the former dog-leg nature of that intersection was eliminated via the purchase of property & the subsequent straightening out of Peachtree @ 11th St. intersection into a square one.
Are there any other practical grid improvement suggestions out there?

[primaltech]

Atlanta needs more street and road connections. We need a grid!

[bu2]

Originally Posted by atler8

As I wrote yesterday, 14th St. is a TERRIBLE spot for gridlock that got worse by a factor of multiple times as I accumulated 32 years of working adjacent to it.
Related not only specifically to the mess of 14th but which really hurts Midtown overall is the disconnected & interrupted pattern of streets found in the partial grid in that area.
An obstacle none of us would ever trade away but which is symptomatic of the "interruption" I speak of is Piedmont Park. There's nothing we'd ever want to or be able to do to change it but just as a point of analysis, think about how it's location forces anyone driving trying to gain an east to west entry into Midtown, say to the major business area near 14th & Peachtree, to either come in via 10th St. or from well to the north from the intersection of Monroe Drive @ Piedmont & then to come south via Piedmont Avenue & on into 14th St.
Similarly, there are many other smaller gaps in the street grid pattern that will come to mind if one considers how often a turn must be made at an intersection because the street does not go through into the next intersection one block over. That of course, is largely due to the fact that development often occurred in a hap hazard manner exacerbated by gaps in time as adjacent blocks were laid out & then built up.
A couple of suggestions for "What to do?" here might give hope.
There is a proposal to extend 15th st. west on beyond it's ending intersection with W. Peachtree St., an extension of which is planned to given an additional HOV access point at the Connector but which would eliminate the current problem in that all west bound traffic on 15th St. is forced to turn right & go northbound on W. Peachtree. That intersection as it now stands is truly is one of the major problematic "gaps" in the grid!
And, something done about 8 years ago on Peachtree @ 11th St. NE. was the reduction in the traffic-clogging signal light delays there as the former dog-leg nature of that intersection was eliminated via the purchase of property & the subsequent straightening out of Peachtree @ 11th St. intersection into a square one.
Are there any other practical grid improvement suggestions out there?

I missed a turn to a restaurant off 14th street once about 6 pm. I had to do about a 1 mile round trip detour to get back and it took a full hour. And there were no obvious accidents or malfunctioning signals.

[bu2]

We need:
Signal synchronization
Left turn lanes
Longer left turn lanes
Some restriction on left turns
Ban Atlanta police from directing traffic-they always make things worse!

[atler8]

Originally Posted by bu2

I missed a turn to a restaurant off 14th street once about 6 pm. I had to do about a 1 mile round trip detour to get back and it took a full hour. And there were no obvious accidents or malfunctioning signals.

And your cited experience of having to do a 1 mile detour to get back to the point of your missed turn speaks exactly to the situation & the lack of a better-connected street grid.
And that problem makes one really want to visit the area, whether for work, or for fun or in terms of residence, doesn't it?

[ATLTJL]

But giving up a lane of traffic on 10th St. to create a bike lane eased traffic woes, didn't it?

So the solution is simple. We just need to give up a couple lanes on 14th to bikers and make it a 2-lane street. That should solve the problem. Why won't they do this????

(I am not against bike traffic. I'm only against giving up lanes of street traffic to accommodate it. Much better to build a 10-12 foot wide multi-use trail on the border of Piedmont Park like a normal human being would do.)

[J2rescue]

Originally Posted by bu2

We need:
Signal synchronization
Left turn lanes
Longer left turn lanes
Some restriction on left turns
Ban Atlanta police from directing traffic-they always make things worse!

We need:

Less people driving. That's the only thing that actually works.

[purporsion]

Atlanta a rose? That's perhaps only here on this forum. More like a crap sandwich.

Now, Atlanta traffic is so bad because of poor planning, a terrible state DOT, and racial tension. While the town is getting better you still have a heck of a long way to go. Things like the beltline will help. But the beltline wont help the hundreds of thousands of simi trucks clogging 285, or the single lane road expected to serve 500k homes with a light at every 10 feet. I love the roads that circle back, like a zig zag to nowhere. It's almost like the DOT made nature trails and then paved them and called that the road system. "Two roads diverged in the wood" and they went to the exact same place so everyone from both roads was stuck at the same left turn.

Someone once had a solution for the 285 trucks. Atlanta and GA, like usual, couldn't get something done.