More lanes on 400
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday announced a $40 million road widening for Ga. 400. The construction of new lanes along nearly nine miles of one of the most congested roads in metro Atlanta is expected to begin this fall and could be complete as soon as August 2007.
The widening will give northbound commuters a lane from Holcomb Bridge to Haynes Bridge roads; two lanes from Haynes Bridge to Windward Parkway; and a section from Windward Parkway to McFarland Road. Drivers heading south will have another lane from McFarland to Holcomb Bridge roads.
Well, yeah, it’s “good news” in the short term. But I can only think that for the next 2.5 years it’s going to be one big parking lot on 400. I guess it already is…
“I can only think that for the next 2.5 years it’s going to be one big parking lot on 400”
Exactly… though how long does it really take to throw some asphalt down? Makes things easier for me coming from Cumming into Atlanta anyways
I’m all for less traffic, but the widening of 400 is hardly the solution. It’s a band aid for a bigger problem — namely, suburbanites who want the best of both worlds – big cars, big houses with lots of trees around it – and a professional job in downtown. They gripe, grumble, and moan about traffic, but overlook the fact that they’ve chosen to live and work *in a city*. The solution isn’t to continue pushing outward (will Atlanta be part of Tennessee eventually?), but to consolidate resources and fully embrace the reality of the situation.
I’ve been around Atlanta long enough to know that it is a city in collective denial. Maybe it’s a southern thing, I don’t know, but everyone wants their McMansion, their truck, and a high paying job in the city. They want to partake in the services downtown offers, but not pay taxes for it. They want to return home after work and see a backyard full of trees, and they’ll put up with 3 hours of driving a day for it all.
The post-war 1950s model of living has yet to die, and by widening 400 it only encourages an unrealistic, half-century-old model of urban living.
1) I hope they pay for this out of tolls and not out from my tax money. I really couldn’t care less about traffic on 400.
2) I agree with Todd. These people want to move out to Cumming to get some trees in the yard of their McMansion, earn ATL salaries, but pay slash-n-burn development prices (5 bedrooms! $200,000!), then bitch about traffic.
3) I work in Midtown, and the ratio of pickup trucks from far-flung counties to compact cars (parked in the same compact spaces in the parking garage)from Fulton & Dekalb is about equal. I call it the “Farmer Exchange Program” because these people wake up at 5, slop the hogs, drive through hellacious traffic to get to the office by 6:30, leave at 3:00 and take lunch at 10:30 or 11:00. In short, they get about 3 or 4 hours per day of time in during which normal people are working and can interact with them.
4) I would love/adore/support a toll on every highway coming into the city at 285 to help us absorb some of the costs of all of these people coming in and ripping up our streets and fouling our air only to take their money and spend it at chain stores in another city entirely.
5) Atlanta is already screwed and done. There will always be the county, one county further out, that is willing to prostitute itself to the sprawling development. If Atlanta ever does institute a growth barrier (which it never will), they’ll just pick up right beyond it.
6) I get sick of hearing people say that the answer is transit, too, because that’s only about 10 percent of the problem (to be extremely unscientific). The Belt Line, while a great idea, is often mentioned alongside Portland, Oregon’s streetcar system, which is credited (by those in Atlanta) with sparking Portland’s urban renaissance. The fact of the reality is that Portland was a backwater, and spared “modern” development for the most part. With a remarkably intact urban core, Portland made the tough decision and got all three metro counties to institute a Metropolitan regulatory framework and instituted an Urban Growth Barrier. This forced the kind of density and consolidation of resources that made the transportation a success, and not vice-versa.
I am one of the Cumming to Midtown commuters, and I can tell you why I put up with 400 traffic. 1) I simply cannot afford to live in Atlanta. With so many childless young singles and double-income gay households with an endless stream of spare cash to spend on housing and taxes, the price of real estate in Atlanta has been driven far beyond my ability to pay. 2) I can sleep at night with my door unlocked in Cumming. Can you do that, Midtowner?
I moved here from Columbus, Ohio and the only option in our price range and close to work was cumming, I have to travel from exit 12 to exit 9 and it is taking me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get to work in the mornings. I have only been here for 2 years and the commute is getting worse on a daily basis. Something has to be done, what is taking so long? Is it Georgia politics? It’s not just GA 400 the intire state infrastruction is horrible and there is no room for the yearly growth. In Ohio when they say they are going to expand the roads they do it!
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I live in the northern part of Alpharetta and will take the traffic any day of the week rather than living in Atlanta or any of the close in locations around there. In my opinion anywhere near the downtown area is totally ghetto, unsafe and you could not pay me enough to send my children to public schools down there.
I agree that there should be more mass transit or an outer loop to give alternative routes to alleviate some traffic but the extra lanes will help for now.