Why isn't city infrastructure uniform? (Atlanta: subdivision, tax, cost)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

what's a half-diamond interchange?

A half diamond interchange
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7449...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

[architect77]

Originally Posted by demonta4

Another think piece thread. Why do you guys think our infrastructure isn't as uniform and clean as cities like Dallas and Houston. Our traffic lights, street signs, sidewalks, etc, just don't ever seem uniform. Our suburbs do a little bit better but still not as good as other metros. It just doesn't make sense to me, do we use different companies every time we do an infrastructure project?

Because Atlanta is run by people who don't care, don't go out and inspect conditions, and the ridiculous separation of responsibility from one street to another with no collaboration between GDOT and municipalities.

GDOT has ignored intown for decades probably with racism being a factor, they admitted to me on the phone that they don't pick up litter from I-20 because it will back up within a week.

Atlanta's public works department isn't very motivated, and the head of signs and signals division isn't from the US or any other 1st world country, therefore to him our street conditions could be the nicest he's ever seen.

Oh, and then there's rampant theft of materials including an $80,000 backhoe that's never been found. Of course there was no inventory or system in place to even keep track of assets.

All of the faded green signs hanging over intersection are faded badly and hundreds need replacing, but they're not urgently addressing that issue.

In fact, every beautiful new readable names of streets hanging over intersections in all of Midtown, Morningside and Lindbergh neighborhoods are only there because of my repeated requests during the last 5 years.

I submit about 2 photos and requests per week to Atl311.


Why don't you help me and do the same?

[architect77]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Any city, it depends on where you go. Parts of Atlanta are beautiful and parts of it are ugly. Any other big city will be somewhat like that.

That has nothing to do street signs or traffic signals or street lights which are pretty uniform in most other US cities.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by architect77

In fact, every beautiful new readable names of streets hanging over intersections in all of Midtown, Morningside and Lindbergh neighborhoods are only there because of my repeated requests during the last 5 years.

Sorry, but I don't buy that.

[architect77]

I just emailed a link to this thread to head of Atlanta Public Works.

It would garner more attention if he heard from any of you too.

[architect77]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Sorry, but I don't buy that.

Ok here the signs that I submitted several requests and got replaces including the new 12th St signs at entrance to Piedmont Park that was installed on Monday;


Heading north on Piedmont Ave starting in Midtown...



New signs all sides at 5th St.


All sides at the Prado Botancial Garden entrance


all sides of Piedmont and Monroe



Working on mast arm signals at Sprouts entrane, already sent prices to new owner of apt, complex



All sides of Piedmont and Cheshire Br. though Southbound Piedmont is missing a sign


A couple of signs at Piedmont at Lindbergh drive (SEVERAL MORE TO GO)


All sides of Piedmont at Sidney Marcus


Got lane signs adjusted on Sidney Marcus at GA400 entrance and alos on Buford Hwy at Lenox Road.


New signs on Peachtree Road at Mathieson Drive.



Out of over 500 requests I gotten about 175 other things fixed also including litter removed form Buford Spring Connector.


I got the crooked overhead sign structure fixed on I-85 northbound approaching Jimmy Carter Blvd.


PLEASE JOIN ME IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE because I don't want to live in a dumpy city for the rest of my life.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by architect77

Ok here the signs that I submitted several requests and got replaces including the new 12th St signs at entrance to Piedmont Park that was installed on Monday;


Heading north on Piedmont Ave starting in Midtown...



New signs all sides at 5th St.


All sides at the Prado Botancial Garden entrance


all sides of Piedmont and Monroe



Working on mast arm signals at Sprouts entrane, already sent prices to new owner of apt, complex



All sides of Piedmont and Cheshire Br. though Southbound Piedmont is missing a sign


A couple of signs at Piedmont at Lindbergh drive (SEVERAL MORE TO GO)


All sides of Piedmont at Sidney Marcus


Got lane signs adjusted on Sidney Marcus at GA400 entrance and alos on Buford Hwy at Lenox Road.


New signs on Peachtree Road at Mathieson Drive.



Out of over 500 requests I gotten about 175 other things fixed also including litter removed form Buford Spring Connector.


I got the crooked overhead sign structure fixed on I-85 northbound approaching Jimmy Carter Blvd.


PLEASE JOIN ME IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE because I don't want to live in a dumpy city for the rest of my life.

The real question is why does a city like Atlanta need to be reminded to make these changes?

For what its worth I've made tons of request to GDOT to the point where they simply ignore anything that comes from me now.

They did make a few adjustments, like...adding a street sign instead of a traffic light.

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by demonta4

Another think piece thread. Why do you guys think our infrastructure isn't as uniform and clean as cities like Dallas and Houston. Our traffic lights, street signs, sidewalks, etc, just don't ever seem uniform. Our suburbs do a little bit better but still not as good as other metros. It just doesn't make sense to me, do we use different companies every time we do an infrastructure project?

It's also because there is no street-grid as developers even chose and built the streets. Cu de sacs that do not meet or streets that changes names with short runs.

How can it all be a uniform infrastructure .....
Interesting read on comparing Atlanta's non-grid to Chicago with a grid. The link has more to do with expressway/freeway gridlock issues. But touches on built environment in general....

How an Urban Grid Prevents Atlanta

From link:

because so much of metropolitan Atlanta’s development was happening in unincorporated areas, a significant portion of the region’s surface streets and neighborhood roads were laid out and constructed by individual landowners and developers, only being turned over to local government control once the lots in the residential development had been sold. The vast majority of these routes were designed to only serve specific land subdivisions, which meant that the internal street networks tended to be self-referencing and essentially fenced off (or cul-de-sac’d). Without governmental oversight, adjacent subdivisions were only rarely connected together.

The ARC [Atlanta Regional Commission] was not in the business of building roads (or anything else), which meant that most counties were left with little alternative but to accept new residential roads as ‘gifts’ from private developers. As a result, aside from a few places, a secondary network of through routes did not emerge by accretion as in other regions of the country. In other words, the grid so common in many urban areas simply never came to exist in metropolitan Atlanta, a fact that forced distributed traffic patterns into a constrained system of arterials and freeways.

[arjay57]

Whatever the critics say about the ATL's street patterns, we have to acknowledge that a whole lot of people LOVE living on cul de sacs and in neighborhoods that don't foster cut-thru traffic. Many people will pay a premium to be protected from high traffic streets.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by DavePa

It's also because there is no street-grid as developers even chose and built the streets. Cu de sacs that do not meet or streets that changes names with short runs.

You have clearly never been here.

The original, historic parts of the City in Downtown, Midtown and adjacent neighborhoods are on a grid. These neighborhoods were also served by a streetcar network.

But this isn't flat prairie land like Chicago. This is a heavily wooded, hilly region crisscrossed by streams and topographical features that simply doesn't lend itself to a grid outside of the core. Old Native American trading paths and farm to market roads became our arterials as the Metro area exploded with growth. To impose a grid on most of Atlanta would destroy the beauty of the place, something Chicago never had to worry about.