According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, yesterday (Tuesday), the Georgia DOT (GDOT) officially rolled out a new toll lane plan for the I-75 and I-575 corridors.
Please click here to read the full article.
As far as traffic congestion is concerned, GDOT has already built miles of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on I-20, I-75, and I-85, but they don't seem to improve our traffic here one bit, and I don't seem to see where this new public-private proposal for I-75 and I-575 will help, either.
Most recently, GDOT hardened the shoulders on US 19/GA 400 from the North Springs MARTA Transit Station (Exit 5C) in Sandy Springs to Windward Parkway (Exit 11) in Alpharetta, all for MARTA and Xpress buses to use when traffic slows below 35 MPH. While this seems great for buses, it still doesn't seem to alleviate the congestion for the rest of us. IMHO, GDOT should have looked at the concept Germany designed and implemented on some of its Autobahns, where the shoulder is used as an auxiliary lane for all traffic during periods of major congestion, and should have redesigned the shoulders accordingly. (See the National Geographic Channel's "Megastructures" episode on the Autobahn.)
The root of the entire traffic problem here in "The A-T-L" is the out-of-control development, especially on the northside (Cobb, Cherokee, North Fulton, Gwinnett, and Forsyth Counties). Developers have been allowed to run amok, all with the implicit (if not explicit) blessings of our elected officials. As a result, they've been allowed to build way too many high-density subdivisions and industrial parks on roads that were once rural (i.e. Georgia Highway 9 in North Fulton and Forsyth Counties)... and we wonder why traffic here stinks!!!
Yes, I am for much-needed infrastructure improvements (roads, sewers, etc.). However, I am more for putting serious controls on development. While the Metro Atlanta area has become a more popular place for people fromall over the country, and other parts of the world, to live and work, there will eventually come a time when our infrastructure can no longer handle it and we even may stagnate and begin to lose people and jobs.
BTW, I am beginning to see the Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Metro area grow just as we have down here, especially where sections of their new I-485 beltway have been opened. According to my wife's relatives in Charlotte, they are already seeing the signs of "another Atlanta" as developers are doing the same thing there. Being that our two major metro areas (Atlanta and Charlotte) are on I-85, with Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the path and growing as well, it seems that this ungodly sprawl is becoming a "bubonic plague", the victims being both the residents and the infrastructures of northern Georgia and the Carolinas. In this case, it's spread by a new breed of "rats"... greedy developers!!!
That's enough "ranting and raving" for today. Thanks for visiting and please come back again.
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3 comments:
Driving is a fad.
This reminds me of a line I heard once when I worked in Asheville. Atlanta is going to be the next Dallas, Charlotte the next Atlanta and Raleigh the next Charlotte.
Seems dead on.
The "rats" - greedy developers destroyed the character of my homestate of Delaware with acres and acres of strip malls, subdivisions, and other characterless development. All the while the infrastructure has sagged behind in catching up to meet the demands. The way I see it, there is no "quality of life" issues being adhered to anymore in America. Developers and their financial backers the ones controlling the destiny of the country. So Atlanta and it's sprawl is mimicking all over from here in South California to the Megalopolis of the northeast.
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