Bus rapid transit on Cobb Pkwy could worsen traffic, study shows (Atlanta: 2015, home)

[Airforceguy]

Cobb might as well go ahead and join MARTA. A MARTA line from the Cumberland area to Downtown Atlanta would be awesome....

Cobb County’s controversial plan to build a $500 million bus rapid transit system on U.S. 41 (Cobb Parkway) could make congestion on the heavily traveled corridor even worse, according to a key environmental study.

The document, called an Environmental Assessment, was released in April and includes traffic modeling at five intersections along the route, which is home of Dobbins Air base, Lockheed-Martin, residential enclaves, WellStar Kennestone Hospital and the Braves new stadium with its mixed-use development.

Some intersections fared better than others in the analysis, which included traffic projections out to the year 2040.

Bus rapid transit on Cobb Pkwy could worsen traffic, study shows | Route 666

[alco89]

No. Somehow they'll make this mean they should never ever have mass transit other than a few old buses here and there.

[netdragon]

This is a no-brainer. Hopefully, people will start using South Cobb Dr, Fairground St, etc a bit more.

Anyway, Cobb County's focus is not congestion-relief anymore as of CTP 2040. It was one of the main direction priorities citizen groups and businesses alike agreed upon during the focus groups (I was there). Agreed that a focus on congestion relief: mainly adding lanes wasn't going to help anymore. The focus now is reducing trip time. You can have good trip time and higher congestion with certain improvements, like SMART systems. So, for instance, the SMART systems may improve trip time more than problems created from the transit worsen trip times (stoplight timings are a woefully horrible problem in Cobb), and road-realignments can also improve trip times while not decreasing congestion. The required impermeable median in Marietta and in Smyrna North of Herodian Way will also improve traffic flow (and be a boon for pedestrians). Under those conditions, it's considered a Go if the aggregate affect is an improvement or little change.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

Cobb might as well go ahead and join MARTA. A MARTA line from the Cumberland area to Downtown Atlanta would be awesome....

Bus rapid transit on Cobb Pkwy could worsen traffic, study shows | Route 666

Building things is not always a good idea.

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

Cobb might as well go ahead and join MARTA. A MARTA line from the Cumberland area to Downtown Atlanta would be awesome....

If you mean HRT, then assuming it isn't tunneled under Cobb Pkwy, it wouldn't do anything to help walkability along Cobb Pkwy. People would never go for an EL, so it'd have to be tunneled. Tunneling would be too expensive If HRT were along I-75 (if there's still enough ROW room), then you have about a mile walk to Cobb Pkwy and only at major intersections, so up to a mile walk from there to the business along Cobb Pkwy. No one will walk two miles. . Walkability is part of what the BRT is meant to help with. HRT won't help with walkability if it's on I-75.

Ultimately, long-term, a local-stop light rail and an express HRT are both needed.

However, the local-stop options are needed before HRT will do anything other than get people to the Cumberland Mall, Braves, Franklin Rd and Town Center really fast.

If there's BRT/LRT down Cobb Pkwy AND on major cross street branches like Windy Hill , South Marietta Pkwy, and Delk, then suddenly an HRT speeding across those branches makes a ton of sense.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by netdragon

If you mean HRT, then assuming it isn't tunneled under Cobb Pkwy, it wouldn't do anything to help walkability along Cobb Pkwy. People would never go for an EL, so it'd have to be tunneled. Tunneling would be too expensive If HRT were along I-75 (if there's still enough ROW room), then you have about a mile walk to Cobb Pkwy and only at major intersections, so up to a mile walk from there to the business along Cobb Pkwy. No one will walk two miles. . Walkability is part of what the BRT is meant to help with. HRT won't help with walkability if it's on I-75.

Ultimately, long-term, a local-stop light rail and an express HRT are both needed.

However, the local-stop options are needed before HRT will do anything other than get people to the Cumberland Mall, Braves, Franklin Rd and Town Center really fast.

If there's BRT/LRT down Cobb Pkwy AND on major cross street branches like Windy Hill , South Marietta Pkwy, and Delk, then suddenly an HRT speeding across those branches makes a ton of sense.

I actually absolutely agree, though I'm not sure we need one before the other so much. Any of it that would be built would be used. People would commute with HRT Park-n-Rides, and locally use LRT, even if there was somewhat redundant service, I have the feeling that both see good ridership.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by netdragon

This is a no-brainer. Hopefully, people will start using South Cobb Dr, Fairground St, etc a bit more.

Anyway, Cobb County's focus is not congestion-relief anymore as of CTP 2040. It was one of the main direction priorities citizen groups and businesses alike agreed upon during the focus groups (I was there). Agreed that a focus on congestion relief: mainly adding lanes wasn't going to help anymore. The focus now is reducing trip time. You can have good trip time and higher congestion with certain improvements, like SMART systems. So, for instance, the SMART systems may improve trip time more than problems created from the transit worsen trip times (stoplight timings are a woefully horrible problem in Cobb), and road-realignments can also improve trip times while not decreasing congestion. The required impermeable median in Marietta and in Smyrna North of Herodian Way will also improve traffic flow (and be a boon for pedestrians). Under those conditions, it's considered a Go if the aggregate affect is an improvement or little change.

Most signals maintained by the county are operated by cameras and if they are out of sync I would encourage you to call Cobb County DOT and report the issue so it can be fixed, most of the time without sending a crew in the field, since they are all linked to the TMC on County Services Pkwy.

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Most signals maintained by the county are operated by cameras and if they are out of sync I would encourage you to call Cobb County DOT and report the issue so it can be fixed, most of the time without sending a crew in the field, since they are all linked to the TMC on County Services Pkwy.

I did recently and they just fixed E-W Connector's synchronization.