Opinion: Traffic Congestion Relief within Reach?

By Candace Boothby, President, Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce, and Terry Lawler, Executive Director, Regional Business Coalition of Metro Atlanta

From Five Points to Five Forks Trickum and from Moreland to Marietta, metro Atlantans face daily challenges when traveling around our community.

And everyone has a personal story to tell: The missed dance recital, the late arrival to the ball game, the missed flight or even the melted ice cream on the car seat coming home from the supermarket.

And sometimes it's an even bigger story.

Like the manufacturer who needed to move to a neighboring county to expand the size of its factory only to find that a large percentage of its existing employees quit because of the increased commute time.

Or the telecom company that realized only too late that its new call center wasn't located near transit services which were primarily used by its employees to get to work.

Every day metro Atlantans, and metro Atlanta businesses, face increasing mobility challenges.

But Atlantans, and Georgians, have always responded to past challenges.

Some folks said we would never get the Olympics. But we did.

Some folks said the Atlanta Airport would never be the world's largest or busiest. But it is.

And a lot of people said Atlanta and Georgia would never vote for a lottery to fund college scholarships, pre-K and educational technology. But we did that too.

Now some folks are saying we don't need additional funds to make improvements to metro Atlanta's transportation systems.

What would happen if we didn't make those improvements?

You don't really want to see that happen.

According to GDOT, commute times in metro Atlanta will increase dramatically, potentially doubling today's commute times. In other words, a rush hour commute from Perimeter Center to I-20 could take over 2 hours in the coming years...on a normal day.

Metro Atlanta transit systems, which provide services to a quarter of a million riders daily, could be operating at half of today's capacity, adding tens of thousands of cars to metro Atlanta's highways every day and potentially devastating Atlanta's tourism and convention business.

Tractor trailer truck traffic, which is growing at least 50% faster than automobile traffic, could double tractor trailer congestion on I-75, I-85, I-20 and I-285 in the future.

Express bus services would have to be discontinued, adding potentially thousands of additional cars on metro Atlanta's highways daily, especially in our outlaying communities.

Metro Atlanta would no longer have just traffic congestion. Metro Atlanta would have "Extreme Traffic Congestion."

But like our past challenges, extreme traffic congestion in metro Atlanta can be overcome.

The Georgia legislature is presently looking at a regional transportation funding mechanism that would allow metro Atlanta residents the option to raise the needed funds to address traffic congestion and other future transportation needs.

Traffic congestion is not a republican problem, nor is it a democrat problem or an independent problem. It is everyone's problem.

Our legislators have the ability to provide the citizens of metro Atlanta with the opportunity to avoid "Extreme Traffic Congestion."

We need to let our legislators know that metro Atlanta voters need that opportunity, and we need it now.

The Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta (RBC) is an organization of over a dozen local Chambers of Commerce throughout the metro Atlanta region. The RBC's primary goal is to represent the interests of RBC Chamber members on public policy issues impacting our transportation, water and air quality and to advocate for solutions that improve metro Atlanta's quality of life and economic vitality.

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Federal Government Plan Aims to Curb Metro Atlanta Traffic

The federal government is investing $110 million to support an innovative Georgia state plan to reduce traffic congestion in Metropolitan Atlanta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced today. The plan will allow more commuters to take advantage of I-85’s HOV lanes northeast of the city, and will allow for the establishment of new high-speed commuter bus service into downtown, Secretary Peters noted.

“This ambitious plan will tame traffic, pump new money into the region’s transit services and redefine the way people use I-85,” said Secretary Peters. “The goal is simple, make commutes reliable, not ridiculous.”

Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has helped shepherd the project for two years, from honing the technology to be utilized to analyzing the impact this project will have on metro Atlanta gridlock.

The result should be a smoother - and swifter - ride for road-weary commuters.

“It increases the ability of facilities to carry vehicles without making a new right of way,” said Dr. Randall Guensler, professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “If you look at the I-85 corridor, there’s no room to expand. People have the option of buying into faster travel and our focus groups said that was valued by all income groups.”

Similar programs have been initiated in Denver, Houston, Orange County, Calif., San Diego and Minneapolis, with the latter system most closely resembling the plan destined for Gwinnett, Guensler said.

According to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Urban Mobility Report, the Atlanta metro area is tied for the second-highest level of traffic congestion as measured in terms of hours of delay per rush hour driver.

Georgia Tech’s involvement in this effort to break the bottleneck is just beginning. Guensler is overseeing a vehicle monitoring program for drivers who elect to cruise through the new lanes. Measurements will include household traffic behavior, emissions and potential equity impacts.

The focus group will include 700 households comprising 1,500 vehicles, which include express buses.

Guensler calls it “the most comprehensive travel behavior study that’s ever been done.”

The first phase of the project will institute a network consisting of dynamically-priced high occupancy toll lanes on I-85, stretching from I-285 to Old Peachtree Road by January 2011. Future phases of Atlanta’s congestion plan will include a 49-mile network of additional HOV-to-HOT lane conversions along I-85, I-75 and I-20. Similar HOT lane projects have been implemented in Minneapolis and Southern California, and these areas have already seen a reduction in the amount of congestion during peak travel times.

Also included in the grant is $30 million for transit service enhancement that will operate on the newly converted expressways. The funding will go towards the purchase of new buses and the construction and expansion of park-and-ride facilities.

Atlanta is the most recent city to receive federal funding from the Department of Transportation for its efforts to establish a more permanent Federal program focused on innovative solutions to improve mobility and fight increasing congestion in metropolitan areas. Details on Secretary Peters’ innovative Reform Proposal can be found at www.FightGridlockNow.gov.

“The money we are providing today will make commuting faster, transit better and small businesses more competitive,” said Secretary Peters. “Together, we’ll make traffic in Atlanta go with the wind.”

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