Traffic Congestion in the City

[ATLMidcity]

Traffic in the city of Atlanta is noticeably more congested than 2 years ago.

Traffic seems to be heavy from 8 am to 8 pm every day, and even on the weekends in the core of the city.

What is driving the increase in traffic volumes on city streets and the Connector these days?


What development in the city do you think is having the biggest impact on traffic congestion in the city throughout the week?

P.S. Citywide infill and gentrification is exactly what it sounds like. Think realistically... NOT racially.

[jayden]

Infill plus public transit not clicking with new residents.

[Street Advocate]

Surely couldn’t be related to the 1 million additional residents living and auto dependent in the suburbs.

If I had to pick one in the poll (I’m not, I don’t agree with the limited options), it would be BeltLine, but it’s because people drive here from Alabama to visit it and park their cars for free on our streets.

[Tuckerman]

Difficult to say. I believe one factor may be the decline in public transit use- this may mean more people relying on cars; a second factor may be the population increase; a third factor may be the considerable blockage and congestion caused by construction and road work. In any case, it is palpable.

[Atlriser]

I’ve lived in brookwood/downtown/grant park since 1998. Intown traffic on city streets isn’t much different than it was 20 years ago honestly. It’s actually better in midtown than it was 10-15 years ago. The interstates continue to worsen each year. That’s the beauty of intown living: you can walk and/or take city streets!

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by Street Advocate

Surely couldn’t be related to the 1 million additional residents living and auto dependent in the suburbs.

If I had to pick one in the poll (I’m not, I don’t agree with the limited options), it would be BeltLine, but it’s because people drive here from Alabama to visit it and park their cars for free on our streets.

hear hear. more people passing through on the connector, more people driving to new job growth in the city center probably less so. my neighborhood is an absolute clusterfuck because the two main N/S routes (piedmont, cheshire bridge) are out of service or reduced capacity, but that doesn't really affect my day to day life since i rarely drive anywhere.

[ATLMidcity]

The infill in Atlanta is insane. If I'm not mistaken, didn't the city add something like 70-80,000 residents since the 2010 census?

[trainiac]

Originally Posted by ATLMidcity

The infill in Atlanta is insane. If I'm not mistaken, didn't the city add something like 70-80,000 residents since the 2010 census?

I was bummed we didn't quite make it to 500K. So close! I can't remember how many people came in via the Emory annexation but I think it was less than 10 public school students, so pretty much all natural growth this past decade.

[tallpez]

Originally Posted by ATLMidcity

The infill in Atlanta is insane. If I'm not mistaken, didn't the city add something like 70-80,000 residents since the 2010 census?

Yep, almost 80,000.

Population, Census, April 1, 2020 498,715
Population, Census, April 1, 2010 420,003

[ATL Champion]

Originally Posted by tallpez

Yep, almost 80,000.

Population, Census, April 1, 2020 498,715
Population, Census, April 1, 2010 420,003

Yes!

Extrapolating from the Census 18.74% population Growth Rate1.874% per year)

Population, April 1, 2022 517,581

almost 100k in the 12years since the 2010 census

[PhunkyPho]

Maybe we should try this...

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...article_search

[KevinLash]

It is happening mostly everywhere.

[lux]

Originally Posted by PhunkyPho

Maybe we should try this...

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/...article_search

Wuppertal in Germany has this, they built it over 120 years ago and it still looks super futuristic today. So cool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn

[cparker73]

Originally Posted by lux

Wuppertal in Germany has this, they built it over 120 years ago and it still looks super futuristic today. So cool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn

We should build something like this in West Midtown over all those rail right of ways the rail companies don't want to share space with.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by cparker73

We should build something like this in West Midtown over all those rail right of ways the rail companies don't want to share space with.

Agreed- west midtown is one of the only neighborhoods that would be a good fit for an elevated transit line.

[mayhem]

The reduction of 4 lane streets to 2 lane streets is absolutely the cause. My street used to never be backed up and immediately after it was reduced, traffic became noticeably worse, backing up to points I had never seen living here for almost 20 years.

[shivtim]

Originally Posted by mayhem

The reduction of 4 lane streets to 2 lane streets is absolutely the cause. My street used to never be backed up and immediately after it was reduced, traffic became noticeably worse, backing up to points I had never seen living here for almost 20 years.

Good, now lets get Spring, W.Peachtree, Courtland, and Piedmont down to two lanes. Way safer. I'll take a little bit of car congestion if that means a safer city with less car violence.

[GTdan]

Originally Posted by shivtim

Good, now lets get Spring, W.Peachtree, Courtland, and Piedmont down to two lanes. Way safer. I'll take a little bit of car congestion if that means a safer city with less car violence.

Amen. A majority of the day traffic is pretty light. I'm all for reducing car lanes and repurposing the space for bikes and people.

[testarossa50]

Originally Posted by GTdan

Amen. A majority of the day traffic is pretty light. I'm all for reducing car lanes and repurposing the space for bikes and people.

Yeah the left turns on these four-lane streets with no turn lane in the center are downright suicidal. I see accidents all the time on Monroe--fortunately that one is earmarked to become a complete street.

Most of the time the key intersections only have one through-lane anyways, such as Monroe and Ponce.

[shivtim]

Spring street used to be 4/5 lanes, and went down to 3/4 lanes (depending on the block) with the cycle track addition. With construction, it's been down to 2 lanes for much of the last year in a couple places, for example south of 8th street. And it hasn't caused a traffic apocalypse. I wish they'd keep it at 2 lanes after the construction is finished. Contrary to the OP, I've found that traffic is lighter in midtown this year because so many office jobs have gone remote. But that's just anecdotal. It would be great to see actual data since I have such a different perception than the OP.

Edit: According to ARC, interstate traffic in metro Atlanta 2021 was lower than in 2019, despite the growing metro population.
This article is very light and doesn't have data, but implies that by April 2022 traffic volumes on GDOT roads in metro Atlanta were almost back to what they were pre-pandemic.
Someone should do some data crunching using these GDOT data. Just from poking around it looks like traffic volumes in 2021 were lower than 2019 in most places, but increased in some rapidly growing areas (e.g. Memorial drive).
As of Nov 2022 office worker visits were down 43% from 2019. That would imply a significant corresponding reduction in rush hour traffic.