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Yes, Regional leaders go on annual trips to learn best practices from other Metros in the States and Canada - and have been doing so for many years now.
What's interesting is that with substantially more than double the rail trackage of Atlanta across a much larger geographical area with several million more people, Dallas has less than half of MARTA'S daily ridership.
Somethings not right with this equation, and its design is certainly not worth us emulating.
As far as D.C. goes, they've had access to Federal funding from day one that other Metro's could only dream of.
I wish GDOT would take field trip visits to other DOTs to learn how much better they could be doing things.
Florida's DOT is about as good as they get, Texas, NY and NC also are light years ahead of GDOT.
D.C.'s metro has never had that dreamy federal funding, and the district was a h*ellhole until the late '90s.
And as usual, they didn't spend money on scheduled, routine maintenance from then to now.
As a result, the Metro, despite opening s new line (silver?) recently, needs many billions to fix all the problems from decades of neglect.
They do not have this money and timewise it will take at least a decade to do the necessary work.
The metro is so unreliable now that people have switched to other methods of commuting.
Ridership has decreased by 15-20% or more as of right now.
I wish GDOT would take field trip visits to other DOTs to learn how much better they could be doing things.
Florida's DOT is about as good as they get, Texas, NY and NC also are light years ahead of GDOT.
D.C.'s metro has never had that dreamy federal funding, and the district was a h*ellhole until the late '90s.
And as usual, they didn't spend money on scheduled, routine maintenance from then to now.
As a result, the Metro, despite opening s new line (silver?) recently, needs many billions to fix all the problems from decades of neglect.
They do not have this money and timewise it will take at least a decade to do the necessary work.
The metro is so unreliable now that people have switched to other methods of commuting.
Ridership has decreased by 15-20% or more as of right now.
This is all probably well and true about Texas, NY and NC being well ahead in the game.
I was kind of surprised Florida was also put in that list but then again Miami and Orlando do have alot of expressways. suburban Miami in ways reminds me of Houston... ...ever so slightly.
When one considers NC DOT (whom of all the Southeastern States, is the one I marvel) I can't help but wonder why Georgia faces so much more anti-freewayism when the geography between the two states isn't very different.
As for GADOT being on the game... ...its very difficult to judge GADOT as the sole entity because I really feel GADOT did their best with the limited power that they have.
Note that GADOT is severely underfunded, literally bringing in only half of what is really needed to build a transportation system like what is seen through the aforementioned states.
On top of this they are facing severe opposition from an uncoordinated metro (meaning, no one specific county in the metro is on the same page as another, each have their own agenda.)
Given this, its easy to see why the best we can get are toll lanes.
When one considers NC DOT (whom of all the Southeastern States, is the one I marvel) I can't help but wonder why Georgia faces so much more anti-freewayism when the geography between the two states isn't very different.
That is a good point that their are some similarities in the geography of two states like North Carolina and Georgia.
But there are also some key geographical differences that may help to explain why the construction of new superhighways seem to be received by the public much better in a state like North Carolina than in a state like Georgia.
In North Carolina, the population is distributed between multiple metropolitan regions (particularly along the Interstate 85 corridor through the Piedmont region of the state) much more evenly than in Georgia where most of the state's population is concentrated in the northern part of the state in one large major metro region (Atlanta) very close to the Blue Ridge foothill/mountain wilderness region north of the city.
In North Carolina, the most populated part of the state along the I-85 corridor through the Piedmont Plateau region (which includes the metro regions of Metrolina (Charlotte), the Triad (Greensboro/Winston-Salem), and the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham)) is located not as close to the Blue Ridge foothill/mountain wilderness area in the extreme western part of the state as the greater Atlanta metro region is located to the Blue Ridge foothill/mountain wilderness in the extreme northern part of Georgia.
Like was expressed in previous posts, because the Atlanta metro area/region sits so close to the Blue Ridge foothill/wilderness in the northern part of the state, many metro Atlanta residents think of the Atlanta metro area (especially north of I-20, and even some areas south of I-20) as being part of or in the greater Blue Ridge foothills/mountain wilderness area north of the city.
There is a wilderness/nature preserve area that follows the Chattahoochee River south from the North Georgia mountains and foothills deep into the center of the Atlanta metro area, while the northwestern part of the Atlanta metro area (including heavily-populated and developed Cobb County) features multiple foothill and mountain peaks (including the famous Kennesaw Mountain peak in Cobb County) that are part of the southern end of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian foothills/mountain chain.
That so much of the state's largest metro area/region (Atlanta) identifies so closely and directly with being culturally and socially part of the greater Blue Ridge/Southern Appalachian foothill/mountain wilderness region seems to have played a major role in being the impetus for much of the public opposition to the continued construction of superhighways (freeways and toll roads) after the original round of superhighway construction in the Atlanta region in the 1950's and early 1960's.
Many metro Atlantans and North Georgians think of new superhighway construction as being a direct threat to their much cherished and preferred Blue Ridge/Southern Appalachians/Piedmont semi-wilderness lifestyle that they identify so closely with, culturally, socially and emotionally.
I'll never understand why some people fangirl-out over freeways.
For me specifically, I have only lived close to the core of a city a number of times I can count on one hand and even during those periods, we still drove EXCEPT In Chicago.
Most of my life has been spent in the suburbs and it would be extremely difficult for me even as a single person with no children to adapt to living and accepting a dense environment...permantly... When I think of mass-transit, it is usually something I take for one of the following reasons:
- Company subsidizing it
- Parking restrictions
- Events making it ridiculously difficult to drive
- Pleasure (I enjoy trains)
- My car was broke or I simply didn't have one
- Chicago (never drive in the core of this city, you will not emerge with sanity)
With the exception of aforementioned 'Chicago' or 'Events' through my personal experience, even on MARTA, as well as mostly any transit system I've used... I've never found mass-transit to be faster or more convenient when factoring in the time it takes to reach a transit hub, waiting for the bus or train, traveling along with multiple stops, and whatever remaining time needed to transfer or reach your destination. Therefore as long as laws dont change, I will probably always own a personal vehicle.
I understand though that freeways are far from flawless and bring their share of problems, some fairly large but at the same token, for someone who enjoys suburban / rural living and still needs to come into town here and there.. on top of inter-regional commuters (trucks and cars) passing through major metro for freight or business purposes..there just doesn't exactly exist a replacement for them in the modern society.
I also feel that many of Atlanta's freeways probably could flow a bit better than they currently do with some design adjustments.
When I go downtown Atlanta (or Downtown of any major metro) its someplace I like to go and say 'Cool!, look what they're developing over there!, that over there looks nice' ...and then go home. I've never had a passion to live close to a major core.
I'll never understand why some people fangirl-out over freeways.
And I'll never understand why some people seem to insist that more freeways be run through (or rammed through) densely populated and developed urban neighborhoods.
I agree with the viewpoint that arterial connectivity is important to the quality-of-life and economic well-being of a large major metro area like Atlanta.
But vibrant and in-tact urban neighborhoods are just as important, if not more important to the quality-of-life and overall well-being of a large major metro area like Atlanta.
Arterial connectivity is important, but it should not come at the expense of the quality-of-life and overall well-being of urban core neighborhoods and the community as a whole.
I'll never understand why some people fangirl-out over freeways.
The same could be said for transit, right? I don't know why anyone would fangirl out over waiting/walking in freezing or rainy weather, taking 3-4 times as long to get where you're going, or having to schedule around it. Kind of like I don't understand how people fangirl out about their dogs, acting like they are literal children.
Well, if one is comparing a Southeastern metro region like Atlanta to Texas metro regions like DFW and Houston, and is expecting Atlanta to have the same or very similar type of regional superhighway (freeway and toll road) infrastructure as those two Texas mega metros, one's hopes for the metro Atlanta/North Georgia region to embrace that type of approach to building out a metro/regional road infrastructure most likely is going to be disappointed.
That is not to say that Georgia state government (through an agency like GDOT) has not attempted (and often failed due to the opposition of local residents and the public at-large) to build out a regional superhighway network.
But it is to say (as other posters have noted) that metro Atlantans and North Georgians often do not react well to the prospect of new superhighways being built anywhere remotely through or near areas of existing heavy residential development and/or wilderness or semi-wilderness areas.
Before we place all of the blame for Atlanta's regional mobility issues on local residents living along successfully defeated proposed superhighways, one very important thing to keep in mind is that the local residents who successfully defeated those past proposed roadways could have done it without the opinion of the public at-large being firmly on their side.
That was the case during the aforementioned East Intown Atlanta Freeway revolts in the 1960's, '70's, and '80's, and that was especially the case during public backlash against the proposed Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc in the late 1990's and early 2000's when an even broader swath of the public (including Intown Atlanta interests and regional environmentalists along with national environmental groups) helped to defeat a road that seemed to become increasingly more unpopular the longer it continued to be an active proposal.
Many metro Atlantans and North Georgians (particularly north of I-20) have a vision of the Atlanta metro/North Georgia region of being a large major metro area/region in a Blue Ridge/Southern Appalachian/Piedmont foothills forest... A vision which is a big part of many metro Atlantans' and North Georgians' social and cultural identity which they take an intense amount of pride in.
And anything that is perceived as disturbing and disrupting that deep social and cultural identity and that vision of being a metro region in a Blue Ridge/Southern Appalachian/Piedmont foothills forest (like a superhighway proposed to run through or near an existing neighborhood and/or forested area, etc) often gets a tremendous amount of pushback from not only local residents, but also from the public at-large, including local and regional and even national environment activists who often view the encroachment of heavy development on the foothills and ranges of the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian mountains region north of the city in apocalyptic terms.
If one will think of a North Texas mega-metro region like the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex as Southern Prairie, then think of a North Georgia mega-metro region like Atlanta as Southern Appalachian or semi-Appalachian/Blue Ridge/Piedmont forest and one may start to get why new superhighway construction proposals may not always be received as well by the public in metro Atlanta and North Georgia as they might be in areas like DFW and Houston.
North Carolina has about the same terrain as Georgia and have done a massive amount of freeway building.
The same could be said for transit, right? I don't know why anyone would fangirl out over waiting/walking in freezing or rainy weather, taking 3-4 times as long to get where you're going, or having to schedule around it. Kind of like I don't understand how people fangirl out about their dogs, acting like they are literal children.
I am glad we can agree on dogs.
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