Surprise...Atlanta drops from top 10 for traffic congestion (Lawrenceville, Kennesaw: real estate, how much)

[FromCLTtoATL]

I've only been here six months, but thing I've found hard to deal with is the unpredictability of the bad traffic. The same route on the same day at the same time can be pretty bad one day and not so terrible at all the next, with no apparent reason (like a wreck or road work).


I am learning key bottleneck intersections -- Ponce/Moreland, Decatur/Ponce -- for instance.

[nature's message]

I don't know about you, but I see this as a great thing.

[JapaneseInATL]

If only a lot of us could just work from home...it's not an unrealistic wish, given the connected nature of the world we live in today.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by JapaneseInATL

If only a lot of us could just work from home...it's not an unrealistic wish, given the connected nature of the world we live in today.

Many people *could* work from home (like my wife) were her employer to allow such a thing, but they don't. I think it's a stupid policy in her case, but it's their call.

I work from home off and on myself, and my boss does 70-80% of the time now. But we play with software, and most of our teammates and customers are on other continents.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by JapaneseInATL

If only a lot of us could just work from home...it's not an unrealistic wish, given the connected nature of the world we live in today.

I do work from home many days. With auido/video/web conferencing technology and broadband, I can do as much and sometimes more from home. My company pays my broadband charge monthly, and without a commute, many days I work more hours from home than I would ever work at the office, and with fewer distractions.

[JapaneseInATL]

I know a lot of companies have the ability to have their employees work from on, but don't allow such things. That's where I was going with my comment.

I, for one, am one of those that have the ability to work from home with VPN access and all, but my employer frowns upon it if I do it more than once a month. There are countless days I go into work, sit down in my cube, and never interface with anyone besides saying "hi." To me, this is wasting an hour or so of my time sitting in traffic trying to get to work when I can be using that time to work or do other important things.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by joe2000

And there you have it. At times it will take you 1.5 hours and at most other times it will take you 30 mins. Traffic the way you described is in all major cities

Most of the people who complain either:

- Work downtown and live way OTP

- They didnt vote for the marta rail

- They choose not to live near marta

- Etc



At time, traffic in all major cities can be horrible. Funny how you say at times its bad but you didn't say that most of the time it isnt bad

Most of the people that live here did not live here when MARTA was voted. Douglas and Cobb were farmland back then. But I would vote for it to come all the way to Acwroth and Douglasville now!

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

In defference to the person who said Dallas traffic is not as bad as Atlanta, well I agree and disagreee. Getting to downtown Dallas is just as bad from the northern suburbs if not worse than a similar commute from a similar northern Atlanta suburb.

However Dallas has much better east/west routes across the suburbs than Altanta has. A commute from say Kennesaw to Alpharetta is a bear. A similar commute from Grapevine to Frisco (comparable suburb to suburb commute) is a breeze.

As employment centers in metro areas are no longer confined to the downtown of the core city, the hub and spoke design of Atlanta's freeway system is outdated. The NIMBYers have stopped the outer loop, a horrible decision, IMO. Should have been built decades ago.

The major problem with Atlanta is that the freeway system was poorly designed from the get go. Most large cities do not have a bottleneck called a connector that joins 2 major expressways into one huge mess through Midtown and downtown. Most cities have a "loop" system where the freeways run in a loop around downtown and do not join together but rather are connected by spurs on both sides of downtown. This means that I-85 thru traffic remains on I-85, I-75 thru traffic remains on I-75 and downtown exits off the connecting spurs. Here you have 7 lanes of 85 and 6 lanes of 75 that join together and bottleneck into only 2 lanes through downtown (the others break off to 85 north and exits for 17th, 14th Ga Tech at Brookwood). Alot of cities also divide large expressways into THRU and LOCAL traffic lanes (such as the Ryan in Chicago) as well as using reversible rush hour express lanes (Kennedy in Chicago). We should be looking into doing some of this here.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Many people *could* work from home (like my wife) were her employer to allow such a thing, but they don't. I think it's a stupid policy in her case, but it's their call.

I work from home off and on myself, and my boss does 70-80% of the time now. But we play with software, and most of our teammates and customers are on other continents.

Alot of bosses value "face time" with their direct reports. Although the quality and quality of your work can be measured from home as well as the office, bosses just are not comfy with people they don't see.

[cityhopper]

Originally Posted by KevK

The major problem with Atlanta is that the freeway system was poorly designed from the get go..... Alot of cities also divide large expressways into THRU and LOCAL traffic lanes (such as the Ryan in Chicago) as well as using reversible rush hour express lanes (Kennedy in Chicago). We should be looking into doing some of this here.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have driven the worse commutes known to man in Atlanta. In those many hours sitting, swerving, screaming, and honking, I could never understand why there were not rush hour express lanes. We need straight away lanes. I think this would prevent a lot of "hopping lanes", excessive breaking, and pure madness of the merging highways on the Connector.

[off topic rant]Why in the world do be people get in the two lanes closest to HOV and drive 5 mph?[/off topic rant]

There are a few of these in Hampton Roads when your cross the HRBT into Norfolk/VA Beach. You can enter the lanes that just keep traffic freaking straight from point A to point B.