Is Augusta starting to seperate from GA 2nd tier cities in population? (Atlanta: how much, construction)

[nortonguy]

What do you think? Is Augusta finally starting to seperate itself in population. The 2008 census showed we had a 200k lead on the next closes metro (Savannah). It seems they're having to build new roads or widen older roads all the time. The traffic is becoming worse and worse for drivers in the city/metro. I'm looking at the latest GA DOT construction maps. Outside of metro Atlanta the road work is centered around Augusta. Remember this is only the construction for the GA side of the metro. SC DOT has road projects for the SC side of the metro too.

http://www.georgia-navigator.com/images/dynamic/maps/construction/state_24hr.png (broken link)

[heckkle]

When Augusta starts beating Savannah by five thousand and more a year. If I recall correctly, Augusta had one thousand more new residents versus Savannah.

[EastsideDave]

Another group floats idea of expanded Georgia rail system 012510 - The Augusta Chronicle

Figures, Augusta was left off the national passenger rail map (one route goes from Atlanta to Greenville, and another route goes from Columbia to Savannah), and now our own state leaves it off of the state passenger rail map. If this plan in the article actually happens, you could expect Macon to progress, and Augusta to stagnate. Augusta's pretty isolated, the only intercity transit options we have are 1 east-west interstate, a mediocre airport with flights to 2 cities, and Greyhound.

One more thing, anyone else find it odd that a city/metro of our size doesn't have Amtrak service?!?

[nortonguy]

It definitely woudln't affect how Augusta is growing. When Charlotte got their rail, Raleigh didn't become stagnant. I could go on and on with similar cases. Macon and Augusta aren't nowhere near each other anyway. Plus Richmond county is gaining more people than the entire metro Macon. Macon's CSA barley gained more new people than Richmond county did.

[EastsideDave]

I agree that this is not going to happen anytime soon, but it would have an effect on Augusta...we have limited transportation options as it is and if more are not created, all the cities efforts so far will have been useless and the city will stagnate, imo. Potential investors would look and see that one city has access to commuter rail and another doesn't, and the one will rail access looks a lot better in the eyes of investors.

[nortonguy]

Why didn't Raleigh stagnate then when Charlotte got rail? If you look at GA DOT transporation plans for the future. All of GA cities Macon, Atlanta, Savannah, Athens, Augusta and Savannah have rail.

[EastsideDave]

I guess I'm wrong about everything again huh?

I'm NOT talking about public rail transit WITHIN a city (the LYNX train in Charlotte), I'm talking about intercity rail.

That article says nothing about Augusta anywhere in it, Macon-Atlanta-Athens connectivity is all that's mentioned.

Since Augusta IS GA's 2nd largest city, why don't we have a connection to Amtrak?

All I have to say about this proposed GA passenger rail program (which we probably won't see anything of within the next 30 years) is that the city, the commission, and the mayor should be sending weekly letters to the capitol demanding that Augusta get a piece of the pie.

[brentyoung12]

Is this a case of trying to pet one's self on the back over obvious statistics and bad logic?
Augusta's MSA and CSA has been larger than the other second tier cities by a sizable margin for a long time. This isn't news.


And about the map, I see more 24 hr construction around Columbus than Savannah. Does that mean Columbus is separating itself from Savannah? Certainly not, considering Savannah is more urban with much more to do. Bad example with the map.

People can use certain statistics to try and say anything. For an example, Chatham County has a similar amount of more people than Richmond, as Richmond does than Bibb. So however much "greater" Augusta is than Macon, then I guess thats how much greater Savannah is than Augusta???

The core of these cities 2nd Tier cities is still much more alike than anything, Augusta is just sprawled out more. Beside Savannah, I dont think there's much of a separation at all between the cities that anyone really cares about or will seriously notice.

[EastsideDave]

Thank you brentyoung12, nortonguy tends to this sort of thing a lot...I suppose that if a town of 20 people decided to pave a road, he'd probably say it's booming too!

Besides, the Savannah Metro only includes 3 counties in GA, there is also the Hilton Head-Beaufort Micropolitan Area of 2 counties in SC. Both of these area's combined populations are just over 500,000 people. If the census bureau decided to combine these two into one metro, it would be roughly equal to Augusta's metro in terms of area and population.

Augusta's Metro area includes 4 counties in GA and 2 in SC, and has a population of roughly 530,000.

[nortonguy]

Augusta doesn't have a CSA. I'm comparing metros not counties. If that was the case our suburb Aiken is bigger than Bibb is.

Savannah doesn't have those two counties in SC. So it really doesn't matter.