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I live in the NE Atlanta suburbs and commute to Buckhead. I’ve never lived in Houston, but just recently moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles.
ATL traffic is bad, but not anywhere close to LA bad. Not even close.
ATL has bad traffic due to design. Roads that were built without a grid system. Sprawling 2 lane roads that curve and bend trying to avoid crossing rivers and large hills.
I had no idea Atlanta was basically in the foothills of the Appalachians and had the 2nd highest elevation for a MLB team in the country behind Denver.
ATL traffic can be frustrating but not soul crushing.
Not sure if this helps, but if you’ve lived in LA— hopefully this post can provide a frame of reference.
Yes, LA is horrible. I used to go to LA every summer and the traffic is just horrible due to the sheer volume of cars. In Atlanta, you will have traffic sometimes in rush hour but for the most part, you'll only face it when they're clearing an accident.
Yes, LA is horrible. I used to go to LA every summer and the traffic is just horrible due to the sheer volume of cars. In Atlanta, you will have traffic sometimes in rush hour but for the most part, you'll only face it when they're clearing an accident.
I grew up 30 sumn miles east of L.A. and its bad out here but not L.A bad. I think Houston is probably like Inland empire traffic, while Atlanta is probaly a bit worse than the Inland Empire.
The list:
1. NYC 56 hours
2. Boston 50 hours
3. Houston 49 hours
4. LA/San Francisco (tie) 46 hours
5. Washington D.C. 42 hours
6. Dallas 40 hours
7. Chicago 39 hours
8. Atlanta/Philadelphia (tie) 37 hours
9. Detroit 35 hours
10. Seattle 31 hours
Yeah I don't know if covid had anything to do with the traffic but the last time I went to LA for a couple of days in 2021, traffic was less stressful than Houston. And I do believe Houston is worst than Atlanta.
LA wasn’t really all that bad when I went there pre-covid. I was expecting it to be much worse than it was.
Main thing that Houston has over Atlanta is you can bypass a lot of congestion on toll roads. In Atlanta you can’t do that. Getting off the highway just leads to more congested side arteries which are mostly smaller streets of which many are single lane each way. Houston has better surface arterials and an actual grid outside the city center.
The list:
1. NYC 56 hours
2. Boston 50 hours
3. Houston 49 hours
4. LA/San Francisco (tie) 46 hours
5. Washington D.C. 42 hours
6. Dallas 40 hours
7. Chicago 39 hours
8. Atlanta/Philadelphia (tie) 37 hours
9. Detroit 35 hours
10. Seattle 31 hours
Interesting,
NYC - is restricted with bridges as tunnels and most cannot be widened.
Boston - also restrictions over just open expressway and a peninsula.
Chicago is a large city where its suburbs can really only sprawl over half a circumference. Downtown on Lake Michigan and all East is the lake. Southern tip of the Lake, is where one can go East not close to downtown.
Detroit and Philly similar, one goes into Canada by bridge and the other the New Jersey side by bridge. Widening not a real option either?
For this thread, both Houston and Atlanta have a full 360 circumference to sprawl. Wide expressways some widened more than once.
Northern older large sized cities, also have narrower expressways most that cannot be really be widened in most areas.
Houstonians tend to commute further from their home to their office, so the odds of a delay increase. With the lack of transit/commuter rail options like Atlanta (and LA/SF), there is no choice but to just drive, and this jams up the main arteries leading to key job clusters. Even though there are fewer trees/hills, there are still more people in metro Houston (and far more vehicles), and combined with a busy port with lots of freight traffic, it doesn't take away from the high dependency on the automobile, and in a city where energy is king, Houston's love for vehicles won't end any time soon. Hopefully the latest windfall from higher prices will entice Houston to invest in some real transit that will allow for those not connected with O&G to save some energy usage.
Yeah I don't know if covid had anything to do with the traffic but the last time I went to LA for a couple of days in 2021, traffic was less stressful than Houston. And I do believe Houston is worst than Atlanta.
Key words 2021. More folks have been back at work for longer in Houston than LA.
In normal times it's not even close.
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