Why is evening traffic into Atlanta so horrible? (Lawrenceville, Norcross: real estate, neighborhood)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I have heard two traffic engineers, both of whom do a lot of consulting in the ATL, say that that worst problem with traffic in Buckhead is the I-20 interchange. You've got so many folks trying to get home from the the big jobs centers on the northside to suburbs on the east, south and west sides and many of them use the downtown connector.

Well there is only one north-south highway and no good north-south arterials. You get 3 major freeways funneled into one with lots of people exiting and entering in midtown and downtown.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cqholt

1) Where do we get the additional ROW?
2) Where do we get the funds?

Kyle Wingfield (AJC) proposed a toll road along 19 a few weeks ago.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Lanes would have to be removed for the braided ramp system, or the tunnels and retaining walls expanded. It's better to spend the hundreds of millions on commuter rail.

They don't have to remove lanes.

Braided ramps have been done other places. Houston's West Loop 610 in the Galleria area had them added. Big improvement with no change in # of lanes.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by ccdscott

Also, when isn't the Connector NOT jammed? I've been on it at 1pm on a normal weekday and its filled with cars.

I'm pretty sure that at 3am on a Sunday the connector is still jammed. There's something about Grady curve that makes people suddenly go 15 MPH.

Originally Posted by cqholt

Too many exit/entrances ramps so close together, that causes weaving and merging.

This is true.

Originally Posted by tikigod311

That's true, but if I20 wasn't there those onramps wouldn't be nearly as much a problem. I'd love to see them close the Edgewood onramp and the MLK exit for a week and see what happens.

That is not a bad idea.

Originally Posted by bu2

Well there is only one north-south highway and no good north-south arterials. You get 3 major freeways funneled into one with lots of people exiting and entering in midtown and downtown.

Atlanta has almost no good arterial roads. Find me an East-West road north of the Brookwood Split and west of Piedmont that is even 4 lanes.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Too many exit/entrances ramps so close together, that causes weaving and merging.

This, 100%. Plus, Atlanta's system of lanes that end in exits is crazymaking. I've finally started to get the hang of driving on the freeway after memorizing the number of times I have to switch lanes. After I merge onto I-20 westbound near my house, I have to switch lanes 5 times just to continue going straight on 20 past the Connector. After getting a better look at the way the roads are designed, it seems like gridlock is an inevitable byproduct of its design. Maybe the one glimmer of hope is that autonomous vehicles will likely be better at compensating for poorly-designed roads than human drivers.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Atlanta has almost no good arterial roads. Find me an East-West road north of the Brookwood Split and west of Piedmont that is even 4 lanes.

It's true. For all you hear about the ATL being a car town, we honestly don't have that much asphalt.

[tikigod311]

I've been spending some time in Austin and they seem to have a lot more more asphalt (concrete) than we do, per capita. Massive interchanges, feeder roads lining every interstate/highway, elevated highways, etc. The road is king and the amount of cars flying down the road is overwhelming. I'll take Atlanta congestion over this madness. Atlanta has congestion, Austin has gridlock. Makes me appreciate home even more.

They do have some pretty nice bike infrastructure downtown though

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bu2

Kyle Wingfield (AJC) proposed a toll road along 19 a few weeks ago.

He is not a city planner or traffic engineer and his plan would destroy any chance those neighborhoods have of coming back. He is only viewing the situation as moving cars and not people, or else he would have known MARTA's proposed Northside Dr/Metropolitan BRT.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by cqholt

He is not a city planner or traffic engineer and his plan would destroy any chance those neighborhoods have of coming back. He is only viewing the situation as moving cars and not people, or else he would have known MARTA's proposed Northside Dr/Metropolitan BRT.

These are some excellent points.

We have reached the point (and actually are well beyond the point) where we cannot keep expanding the road network to accommodate cars, particularly through a heavily-developed area like Central Atlanta.

The I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector is crowded with traffic at 8pm at night because it is the main/central artery that runs directly through the heavily-developed center of a large major metro region of 6.5 million people.

The Downtown Connector expands to as many as 16 lanes in width through the Downtown/Midtown area (and expands to as many as 20+ lanes down through the Lakewood Interchange where Interstates 75 and 85 and GA Hwy 154/166 intersect down on the Southside).

The Downtown Connector roadway that we have come to know and love was expanded into its current size back during the massive "Freeing-the-Freeways" reconstruction project of the 1980's, a freeway reconstruction/expansion project that was considered to be one of the largest on the entire globe at the time.

The Connector was pretty much expanded to the maximum width that it can be expanded back during the decade of the '80's.

Back when the Connector expansion project was first designed in the late 1970's-very early 1980's (back during the Jimmy Carter administration), Atlanta only had a regional population of just over 2 million people.

Back when the Connector expansion project was completed in the late 1980's, Atlanta only had a regional population of about 2.9 million people.

With Atlanta having a current regional population of about 6.5 million people, slowdowns from extremely heavy traffic on the main central artery (the Downtown Connector) that runs directly through the center of the city/metro region at seemingly strange hours (like 8pm) are not only to be expected but are going to be a continuing way-of-life with or without a robust regional transit system.

There is no roadway expansion solution available to the problem of heavy and gridlocked traffic on the Downtown Connector at this time.

There is no right-of-way remaining to further expand the road through such a heavily-developed area and the I-75/I-85/I-20 interchange was reconstructed and expanded to its maximum extent possible as part of the massive Downtown Connector reconstruction/expansion project of the 1980's.

We are most likely just going to have to live with the problem of heavy traffic on the Connector both during and outside of rush hour like almost all very large major cities/metro areas have learned to live with on their major central arterial roadways.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I'm pretty sure that at 3am on a Sunday the connector is still jammed. There's something about Grady curve that makes people suddenly go 15 MPH.



This is true.



That is not a bad idea.



Atlanta has almost no good arterial roads. Find me an East-West road north of the Brookwood Split and west of Piedmont that is even 4 lanes.

Agreed, no good arterials.