Intown traffic getting worse (Atlanta, Alpharetta: live in, versus, shop)

[afowler]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

There is no way that I could statistically spend as much time as I do sitting at red lights. The only reasonable explanation is that they are deliberately timed to stop movement.

I believe it's because the DOT wanted to save money and doesn't have sensors on any of the lights seemingly anywhere in the state. It's just typical to sit at a light here, when absolutely no traffic is coming the other direction. In some states the lights have sensors to know that no traffic is moving and then change the light.

The people moving down wanted a cheap place to live and they got it.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by afowler

I believe it's because the DOT wanted to save money and doesn't have sensors on any of the lights seemingly anywhere in the state. It's just typical to sit at a light here, when absolutely no traffic is coming the other direction. In some states the lights have sensors to know that no traffic is moving and then change the light.

The people moving down wanted a cheap place to live and they got it.

It seems like pretty much everywhere has sensors at the lights. I would add that to my list.

[afowler]

Originally Posted by bu2

It seems like pretty much everywhere has sensors at the lights. I would add that to my list.

I seem to notice this the most in Alpharetta, because you have the workday rush where it makes sense for a light to be 5 minutes long. On Sunday morning that same light is still 5 minutes long. It's that way everywhere I've been in metro Atlanta. Alpharetta is supposed to be the upscale area here.

Think they built and built with no regard to QoL and now you have what you have, which is the nice parts of town are like whack a moles and change like the wind as do the parts of town slipping. Roswell is a great example because parts of it just plain suck now, when it used to all be nice. Sandy Springs too, Dunwoody etc..

Meanwhile the straight up hood on memorial drive is now going millennial to the max. Strange place here, hard to know what the future is.

[architect77]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I have always been pretty good at avoiding traffic hassles. I try to avoid rush hours, driving long distances, using freeways, etc.

However, it seems to me that intown Atlanta's traffic has gotten worse by orders of magnitude. Several times lately it has taken me an hour or more to go a few miles in the city of Atlanta. Yesterday it took an hour and ten minutes to go from 17th Street to Ponce. This is not atypical.

In my opinion this has the potential to take the bloom off the rose of intown living. Traffic is just as bad on the weekends, too.

It's directly a visual of the booming economy.

Two weeks ago I was at the Edgewood shopping center at 7:45 on a weekday morning.

Trying to exit on northbound Moreland Ave, I've never seen such a perfect flow of cars moving without any gaps.

A thousand cars must have passed within a single green phase. It was a notable sight!

That said, the extremely long cycle times programmed into the signals every morning and afternoon are a little too long at certain places. North Ave and Highland intersection needs a few seconds shaved off the green phases.

I did report this and got a call so I explained my thoughts.

I also suggested they look at the timing at West Peachtree and 17th St during the evening after rush period.

They apparently adjusted it after my call because now the greens are in perfect succession up West Peachtree.

[ATLTJL]

You had to call?

That's crazy.

Does the city employ civil engineers, or not? They really wait on citizens to call to look into things like this? Pathetic.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

You had to call?

That's crazy.

Does the city employ civil engineers, or not? They really wait on citizens to call to look into things like this? Pathetic.

While still working up in Midtown, I used to keep the phone number for signal light malfunctions, etc. in my phone. After speaking to a specific technician or 2 often enough, they got to know & trust me enough to know that I was calling legitimately. As such, they gave me their direct contact info. Believe me, I was happy to use it.
As they explained the overall situation, Atlanta has a lot of equipment that is old or fragile enough so as to easily go out of sync from their programming. When that happened, for the lack of a built in alert in the system to inform them that anything was wrong with a particular light, they instead often relied on help from the public such as what I was doing by phoning.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by bu2

It seems like pretty much everywhere has sensors at the lights. I would add that to my list.

Uhh, really? I think sensors are few and far between. Else you wouldn't sit for so long at red lights with no one coming the other direction. You wouldn't sit and wait for turn phases when no one is turning.

Originally Posted by afowler

I seem to notice this the most in Alpharetta, because you have the workday rush where it makes sense for a light to be 5 minutes long. On Sunday morning that same light is still 5 minutes long. It's that way everywhere I've been in metro Atlanta.

Indeed. I now work down off Fulton Industrial. My drive is right at 12 miles. If i hit every green light, it's about a 20-minute drive at most. BUT...it's Fulton Industrial. The lights on that road were programmed by a madman. The light for a driveway into a warehouse will stop the six-lane highway for well over a minute with nary a single vehicle coming out of the warehouse. The light at Camp Creek is longer than three minutes, 24 hours a day. The light to turn out of the area I work in is so long, many people just run it. Two intersections alone can increase my commute time by 25%.

I finally got fed up and wrote GDOT last night. Got a response that they will look into it. What's really weird is that tonight, the light to turn out of the area I work was about 1/3 as long as before. Surely they didn't reprogram it within 24 hours of my writing. Camp Creek was still just as long as ever.

There are also so many places around town where there are red left arrows in places with no visibility issues or any other reason for a red arrow. So, you will sit there, looking at the desolate road in front of you, but you are not allowed to turn. Ridiculous.

Originally Posted by architect77

That said, the extremely long cycle times programmed into the signals every morning and afternoon are a little too long at certain places. North Ave and Highland intersection needs a few seconds shaved off the green phases.

West Peachtree at 5th. West Peachtree is a one-way road. 5th dead ends into it in two spots. Cars traveling on West Peachtree can only turn right onto the first 5th, which they can do red light or not. Cars on 5th can only turn right on West Peachtree which they can do red light or not. The second intersection with 5th requires a light only to allow cars on 5th to turn left onto West Peachtree. I'm not sure I've ever seen a car turning from 5th in my lifetime, but I'm sure it happens once in a while. However, the light is green for 5th for at least two minutes.

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

You had to call?

That's crazy.

Does the city employ civil engineers, or not? They really wait on citizens to call to look into things like this? Pathetic.

How could anyone realistically keep up with every traffic signal in a metro of 6 million people?

[ATLTJL]

How could anyone realistically keep up with every traffic signal in a metro of 6 million people?

Computers?

They can really do wonders nowadays.

New York City: 7,660 (of a total of 12,460) signalized intersections are controlled by a central computer network and monitored by traffic management centers.[5][15]
Toronto: 83% of its signals are controlled by the Main Traffic Signal System (MTSS). 15% also use the SCOOT (Split Cycle and Offset Optimization Technique), an adaptive signal control system.[16]
Sydney: 3,400 traffic signals co-ordinated by the Sydney Co-ordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS). Designed and developed by RTA, the system was first introduced in 1963 and progressively developed since then. By October 2010, SCATS was licensed to 33,200 intersections in 144 cities across 24 countries worldwide, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Dublin, Tehran and Minneapolis and Detroit.[13][17][18]
Melbourne: 3,200 traffic lights across Victoria, including regional areas such as Geelong and Ballarat, using SCATS. Some 500 intersections also have tram and bus priority.[19]
Adelaide: 580 sets of coordinated traffic lights throughout the metropolitan region managed by the Adelaide Coordinated Traffic Signal (ACTS) System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffi...d_coordination

[bu2]

[quote=samiwas1;52767705]Uhh, really? I think sensors are few and far between. Else you wouldn't sit for so long at red lights with no one coming the other direction. You wouldn't sit and wait for turn phases when no one is turning.



By sensors everywhere, I meant everywhere BUT metro Atlanta.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Computers?

They can really do wonders nowadays.

Yeah...they can access and control them through these systems. That doesn't mean they know which ones are too long or aren't running optimally.

Originally Posted by bu2

By sensors everywhere, I meant everywhere BUT metro Atlanta.

That makes more sense.