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I live in Buckhead, drive here every day. And it does take 30-45 minutes to go just a few miles in bad traffic during rush hour, especially going down Piedmont or Lenox Roads
I live in Buckhead, drive here every day. And it does take 30-45 minutes to go just a few miles in bad traffic during rush hour, especially going down Piedmont or Lenox Roads
Wtf does race have to do with traffic congestion perception? DC was majority black.
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Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127
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All that being said, I know two people out of town who are in charge of setting up meetings for their companies who have told me that due to traffic, "perceived crime issues", and aggressive panhandling complaints from participants who came to past Atlanta meetups, they always do their best to find locations away from Atlanta now (with Charlotte and Raleigh getting their last half dozen meetings).
I live in Buckhead, drive here every day. And it does take 30-45 minutes to go just a few miles in bad traffic during rush hour, especially going down Piedmont or Lenox Roads
Right, but that's on local roads. The same is true in my area. I get most stuck on local roads. The TSPLOST was not going to address that issue in any way, shape, or form.
I think traffic in Atlanta looks and feels worse because it's so spread out. The isolation of communities without connecting streets makes it impossible to go anywhere without getting on the interstate. A friend of mine used to live in Dunwoody, but moved to Marietta. I haven't seen her since. Why? Because you can't get there from here. Or you can, but it's like Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The idea of taking two interstates just to do lunch makes my head hurt.
Same thing going from Chamblee to Dunwoody. If there's an accident on Peachtree Industrial. Chamblee Dinwoody is ALWAYS a mess. One day it took me nearly an hour to get from Keswick Park to Dunwoody Village!
I think there are a lot of people on 285 who wouldn't be if there were more through streets.
Even though I don't like sitting in traffic, I honestly don't think that traffic here in Atlanta is worse than other major metroplitan areas. Also I don't think building bigger roads or bigger surface streets (like the Windy Hill thing proposed in the T-SPLOST) is the way to go since it just encourages more people to live somewhere where there are not sufficient roads. More people equals more traffic and worse traffic no matter how many roads you build. And public transportation isn't going to stop traffic jams, if that were the case NYC and Chicago especially wouldn't have the bad traffic they do, both metro areas have very good public transit. Traffic jams in Chicago are MUCH worse than Atlanta. I've never driven in NY, but I have Chicago and it is 15 times worse there than here even though they have a very good transit system.
So I also think it is the perception factor.
Also wanted to note that I can get to Buckhead rather quickly, about 15 to 20 minutes and I live on the Westside. I know a lot of backstreets though. I used to live off Cheshire Bridge on Lenox Rd and honestly, I would go out of my way to not drive on those two streets. I'd use back streets. Even where I live now, I rarely go on Howell Mill or even Northside Dr (at certain times) because they have horrible traffic jams at times. I know enough back streets to avoid them. People need to get out more and explore with their cars instead of taking the same streets all the time. I do think Atlanta lacks a traditional grid type structure in a lot of areas, especially suburban areas like Cobb (which is why I moved out of Cobb). But usually you can find a winding street that will by-pass a more popular route and in that way not get stuck in traffic. When people ride with me, they are usually surprised by how I avoid major routes, traffic jam, and street lights (I think the street lights here are timed horribly and will do my best to find a side street with stop signs instead of waiting for all the stupid lights to go green, next one red, turns green, then the next one is red, and so on. I figure if I'm going to stop at every intersection, it should just be for a few seconds versus a few minutes so I can save on gas).
I've found back and side streets quite a bit, but in a lot of cases, at least where I spend my time, Chamblee, Dunwoody and Tucker there aren't very many. Fortunately I've found a few different ways to get to Tucker because I'm there so often, but Chamblee is proving a tougher nut to crack. The communities only connect by one or two VERY congested main roads. I think people are leery bout exploring the city because of gas prices, the way it's spread out, and the crazy way it's laid out.
Keep in mind that the times in this article are average. It doesn't discriminate between people who live 50 miles from work and people who only travel 6 miles. I have done both, plus several commute distances in between, and I can tell you from experience that the 50-mile commute was a soul-crushing 1.5-2 hours each way. I love to drive, and I wouldn't mind at all if I could do 50 miles at 55 mph...or even a steady 40 mph. It's the volume -- the fact that everyone else is going the same place at the same time -- that causes the congestion and the wrecks and the godforsaken 20-mph creeping.
The only thing that's going to fix this is a reliable public transportation system, including commuter rail, that actually goes places outside the city. In this article, you can see that the cities with the shortest commute times also had the largest use of public transport - more than double Atlanta's rate. That's because their public transport system actually goes somewhere.
I get to work in 20 mins but I have to be here at 7am. If I had to.leave at 8 it would take.me an hour because people from Gwinnett are clogging up 85
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