Atlanta Worst Traffic in US
By David Felfoldi on May 22nd, 2008Forbes handed one to Atlanta this week announcing Atlanta as the worst traffic in the country. They came to this conclusion after comparing 75 metros in terms of traffic delays, travel times, and infrastructure. Atlanta passed, er failed, with flying colors, besting LA and Washington DC. Here are some reasons why:
- Commuters spend 60 hours/year stuck in traffic (second to LA)
- Infrastructure can’t support the fastest-growing city in US
- Urban sprawl makes it so that only 29% of comuters can get to and from work in 20 minutes (3rd worst in US)
- 13% spend more than an hour getting to work (4th worst)
- Train system is virtually non-existent, or unused.
- Other commuting options are greatly limited due to the poor city planning
And we can vouch to the readers of this that, yeah, that is about right. I am fortunate enough to have a 10 mile daily, which requires a “mere” 30 minutes/day to drive.
Or I could bike, and it takes me 40 minutes/day. And that is where the solution starts. Only 1% of Atlantans bike to work. Can’t we get this number a bit higher?
Other solutions: telecommute. I started a web development company in 1999 with an office in Atlanta while my business partner and I studied at Georgia Tech and UGA, respectively. The technology existed back then to allow us to be there without “being there”, and it surely is well supported now.
Also, flex-time. Take your employees off the roads during peak hours. Allow them to come in earlier, or later.
Finally, shower installations. If the concern is that we will be dirty, simply installing a shower facility will rid of that excuse, and perhaps even promote the flex-time use as well.
With any solution, there will be naysayers of it. The reasons to continue this commuting downward slide are numerous, some of which make perfect sense (I transport heavy machinery). But most of us don’t do that.
So Atlanta, why do we continue down this path? What will make us change — $4/gallon gas? Because wasting an average of 45 minutes/day sitting in traffic hasn’t stemmed the issue.
You can find the complete list of the best traffic and worst traffic in US. Hey, Atlanta, maybe you can learn something from Buffalo, NY?
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Sprawl. Sprawl, sprawl, sprawl. And its not even Urban Sprawl, as you so politely put it. It’s Suburban Sprawl, which is all that more difficult to deal with because it lacks the fiscal support necessary to sustain itself. Because of our lack of natural physical barriers (and lack of insightful planning), our city continues to grow out, with everyone getting their acres and a mule, and no one seems to realize the benefits of density. The metro-Atlanta area now extends half-way to TN for goodness sake.
One facet of the solution that must be addressed is public transportation. And luckily, the technology now exists for us to do so cost effectively and more easily than in the past.
A rail system like MARTA tends to cost around $90M/mi to build.
Siemens has now come up with a light rail system that costs $3M/mi to build.
And what’s more, these light rail lines are not laid on the ground–they’re hung over the street, roller coaster style. This means that you can retrofit a city with light rail lines at a much lower cost, AND you don’t have to spend all that time getting rights of way and buying the property for the lines. You already have them. Oh, and those ugly electric lines that are all over the city? You can just run them along the top of the light rail.
But even having the technology and knowing about it is not enough. It must be implemented correctly, or it will not be used. In order for a public transportation system to be used, it has to allow people to walk to where they WANT or NEED to go. Home, grocery store, work, play. Now that Atlanta has sprawled halfway to Tennessee, how do we design a system that allows walking over so much distance?
You don’t. You take baby steps. Finish the belt line first, and have immediate plans for creating a network of light rail lines inside the belt line that allows people to get anywhere inside that area within 5 blocks.
Sound too expensive? The belt line has approximately a 5-6 mile diameter. You could throw down 15 lines that cross from one side to the other for about $300M. Remember that initiative to send MARTA out to Marietta? How much did that cost…
Let’s get moving Atlanta.
Ditto.