Metro-Atlanta was not geographically located very well for the now 5.7+ million inhabitants that call it home. First, the only major water source is the Chattahoochee River, a very small river by drainage basin standards, especially where it feeds metro-Atlanta’s primary drinking source – Lake Lanier. The topography is extreme for a large city – resting in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, most of the old major roads around Atlanta were used as trails along ridges before they became 5+ lane thoroughfares. In other words, they weren’t “designed”, they just existed. So, we have a huge metropolitan area that is not on a grid, which is not only a recipe for traffic jams, it doesn’t promote or allow for modes of transportation outside of the personal car.
Yet, there is a huge draw to the area for a couple of primary reasons also related to geography – weather and beauty. The weather of metro-Atlanta is ideal for many folks. It does get hot – but not much hotter than the midwest. It gets cold – but not even close to being as cold as the midwest and northeast. We get all four seasons, including easy drives to spectacular fall color. The topography is rolling and the growing season is long, leading to an ideal landscaping climate. The natural beauty of the area is incredible. And it’s well located – be at the beach in four hours or the mountains in two hours.
So, how do we balance this draw while providing the necessary infrastructure in an otherwise rather hostile environment for infrastructure? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do have some ideas. Concepts that certainly need refining, however it might give us a starting point to discuss where we need to go in order to improve the quality of life of its current citizens and continue to attract and absorb those that will come for the same reasons so many of us transplants did in the first place.
First, let’s talk about the 800-lb gorilla for metro-Atlanta – transportation. The road to hell goes through Atlanta, as the saying goes. Hit Atlanta traffic at the wrong time and hell may seem like an attractive alternative. (Although, I will say that the economy must be having an impact on traffic in the metro area. Recently I drove from the airport all the way up to the north side of Gwinnett County on I-85 and never dipped below 55 MPH at 5 PM on a weekday. I never thought I’d see the day…) The traffic situation is certainly reaching critical mass and an improved economy is only going to make the situation untenable.
As stated previously, the personal car is, without question, the absolute, dominate king of Atlanta. Sure, there are token alternatives here and there, but the car defines Atlanta. Development, even within the city itself, relies heavily on the car. All of the suburban counties are totally and completely car dependent. The ITPers (those inside I-285…) like to think they’re ahead of the game somehow – but really, there is little difference ITP versus OTP. (We’ll get to Atlanta’s train system, MARTA, in a minute…) Building the interstates and major arterial roads bigger won’t solve our problem. Sure, we need to look at ways to be smarter about how we use our existing roads and upgrade where we can, but our long term solution is not simply to make I-85 a 40 lane interstate. The interstates are practically as wide as they could ever be right now. So let’s assume they aren’t widened – what do we do to ease the traffic problems in our city?
First, we need to be pro-active about choo-choo trains, as those who defend our automobile dependent suburban heaven like to call them. Atlanta was founded around rail and rail is going to be a major, if not the biggest, solution to our traffic woes. (It will likely be the key to Atlanta’s future economic growth, but that’s another blog…) The existing rail infrastructure for passengers is MARTA and Amtrak. MARTA’s service area, however, is too limited. It’s also poorly run and a political hot potato. MARTA needs leadership that can actually figure out a way to extend it to the suburbs and it be acceptable to suburbanites. This takes leadership who can move beyond demagoging the suburbs – the lack of leadership in Atlanta, in general, is what led to many breakaway cities being formed recently including Sandy Springs, Milton and John’s Creek. The inability to play nice is severely costing the metro area.
Enough about that, let’s talk about solutions. The first ambitious plan, aptly named “The Brain Train”, would hit all of the major universities, and several smaller ones, from UGA to Georgia Tech. This could become the mainline for the northeastern portion of the metro area, with other future stations connecting into it. Cobb County and the northwest side of Atlanta has a similar plan that would connect Kennesaw State and the Cumberland Mall area presumably to MARTA, but the details of that plan are fairly slim. Gwinnett and Cobb Counties have about 1.5 million people between them alone and no rail system – that’s a problem and these two rail plans would be the building blocks for traffic relief, and at least as important, future growth for these counties. To the south, we’re very close to seeing a commuter rail between Griffin, Georgia and Atlanta. As B King points out in that blog, we need to act cohesively as a region in order to address our transportation problems. Rail is the most critical way to address not just our traffic problems, but our long term economic prosperity in the suburban counties.
Looking way out into the future, as nearby metro areas like Charlotte and Chattanooga and Atlanta converge to make something of a “mega-region” as it’s being called, there area ideas out there to address transportation issues with rail. Current Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory discussed a conceptual idea recently regarding rail service between Atlanta and Charlotte – something that would connect the many large corporations of Atlanta with the financial horsepower that Charlotte is home to. Chattanooga would become another key partner in the “mega-region” for a different, but just as important, reason – water. I’ll get to that later. Savannah has endorsed the portion of President Obama’s high speed rail line that would connect it to Atlanta and Charlotte. (By the way, looking at the proposed map by President Obama – why wouldn’t there be a connection from Lousiville to Atlanta with a stop in Nashville and Chatanooga? Is it the cost of going over the mountains?)
Getting back to the automobile, Georgia DOT has its share of problems. I wrote previously about the balancing law – something that is not DOT’s fault. It just has to live up to a ridiculous law. Once again, B King at Terminal Station sums up many of DOT’s problems quite well. Governor Perdue is attempting to correct the problems, and SB 200 is supposed to do it. However, I am skeptical of how well it will work. It may just trade one set of politics to another. The Democrats’ comments on the new system sound exactly like comments you could make of the old system, so they don’t strike me as productive. If they have a better solution than what the Governor came up with, beyond leave it like it was, they need to present it. Jay Bookman at the AJC also makes a good summary of the political problems facing Georgia in its quest to solve the metro area’s transportation problems.
The answer to this is two fold. First, end the balancing law. Second, enact the regional version of the T-SPLOST. Glenn Richardson wants a statewide transportation T-SPLOST for the very reason Mr. Bookman stated – it will continue the taking of metro area money and redistributing it outside the metro area. Finally, prioritize the projects in the same manner that Gwinnett County prioritizes its SPLOST projects – by need. Come up with logical, defensible criteria that is easy to understand and score each project on its merits. And anybody should be able to suggest projects – from the Governor to a citizen of Germany – for Georgia DOT to fund. You never know where a great idea will come from.
Finally, looking at public transportation, we need to look hard at how well it services the citizens it serves. A bus system is only as good as its ridership. I believe a bus system will be very effective in tandem with a rail system. On their own, each system will only be mediocre. Together, there is a good chance that it would provide actual congestion relief.
In my next blog, we’ll talk about the second part of Atlanta’s infrastructure that’s always in the news – water. We’ll talk drinking water, sanitary sewer and stormwater.
UPDATE: I found this article, which features a panel discussion on being carfree in the suburbs.
