Atlanta doesn't even break Top 10 Most Traffic Conjested Cities (Commerce: neighborhood, to live in)

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

NYC also has a world-class transit system too and many of it's highways are barely 2-4 lanes.

And? The topic is "Most Traffic Congested Cities"...it doesn't matter that the highways in NYC are built too small for capacity - it's still traffic congested.

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by Nanosolar

Pathetic that San Francsico, Seattle, Boston, etc beat us out... I thought we were the Mecca of traffic congestion and these other cities were filled with mass transit options. Just shows you that perception is reality, people keep saying Atlanta traffic is the worst, so it is!

INRIX Traffic Scorecard Reports U.S. Congestion on the Rise in 2013 Following Two Years of Double-Digit Declines

I think there is one major factor that Atlanta lacks that has way more to do with traffic than anything else. "Structual Density." It's the reason cities have train systems to begin with. Mass transit is not a luxery in densely built cities, it's a requirement. Density is not about people when it comes to traffic, it's about structural density. The more compact a region is built, the more traffic it will have. The reason for this is, the development is not built to move cars through the region fast, it's designed for dense living where pedestrians take precedence. It's definelty a catch 22. Highways are built based on moving cars, however, regions that lack direct routes putting precedence onto the pedestrian experience are always going to have bad traffic. The wild card is without the transit system, these regions would not be able to move at all.

Moving forward, Atlanta traffic will get worse as the city adds density to the region. The public transit network will have to be updated or the region will come to a halt. NYC and DC each have over 1 million in subway ridership. Their regions would come to a complete halt without their subway systems. It's not a luxery, it's a requirement.

[tonygeorgia]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

And? The topic is "Most Traffic Congested Cities"...it doesn't matter that the highways in NYC are built too small for capacity - it's still traffic congested.

At least our roads are free. I would hate to have to pay to us the toll roads in nyc and stll have to wait in traffic

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

I think there is one major factor that Atlanta lacks that has way more to do with traffic than anything else. "Structual Density." It's the reason cities have train systems to begin with. Mass transit is not a luxery in densely built cities, it's a requirement. Density is not about people when it comes to traffic, it's about structural density. The more compact a region is built, the more traffic it will have. The reason for this is, the development is not built to move cars through the region fast, it's designed for dense living where pedestrians take precedence. It's definelty a catch 22. Highways are built based on moving cars, however, regions that lack direct routes putting precedence onto the pedestrian experience are always going to have bad traffic. The wild card is without the transit system, these regions would not be able to move at all.

Moving forward, Atlanta traffic will get worse as the city adds density to the region. The public transit network will have to be updated or the region will come to a halt. NYC and DC each have over 1 million in subway ridership. Their regions would come to a complete halt without their subway systems. It's not a luxery, it's a requirement.

Thanks for the gloom-and-doom report. We don't know nuthin bout no transpotashun down here.

[tonygeorgia]

Folks from the NE most love Atlanta. They stay posting in our forum out the 100s on this site they choose to come to our forum. You never see Atlantans posting in the NE forums asking why the NE has high taxes, toll roads eveeywhere, etc

[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

Thanks for the gloom-and-doom report. We don't know nuthin bout no transpotashun down here.

Doom and Gloom?

I was just providing insight into some of the many factors that go into traffic in different region's. It's apart of the tug-a-war that goes on between transportation engineers and urban planners. Planners state the case for pedestrians and transportation engineers state the case for moving cars as fast as possible. In some cities, the planners and sometimes residents have one the fight. In other cities, the transportation engineers have won building as many lanes as they want and placing highways through urban core's.

The other factor has more to do with jobs. The amount of centralized jobs in some major cities urban core makes it impossible to be able to get workers in and out without a massive subway system.

[Ant131531]

NYC came into the discussion as an example of the fact that while NYC may also have 'bad traffic', they also have a world-class transit system that people can use instead of driving everywhere. The city has 8m+ in it's city limits alone and over 20 million in it's population, FOUR TIMES as much as Atlanta's metro population. It's traffic is great in proportion to it's metro population and density. Atlanta's, not so much.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

It's not exactly Atlanta residents, but the city has been the poster child for traffic and long commutes for years. It's so nice not to make one of these negative lists for a change.

I don't think an hour commute in Atlanta is uncommon either, but I have always thought that LA, NYC, Chicago, and a few others had much worse traffic than Atlanta.

Only here in Atlanta do people think the city is a "poster child" for traffic. Ask people in NYC, DC, Boston, SF, LA, Chicago and they don't have that perception. Not saying traffic can't be an issue on some routes during rush hour in the Atlanta metro, but my experience is traffic is much worse on a more pervasive basis in other cities. I think the data bear out my perception.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

NYC also has a world-class transit system too and many of it's highways are barely 2-4 lanes.

What highway in NYC is 2-4 lanes? In Boston, that is actually the case in some areas. In NYC, not so much, and in NY they have the most extensive transit system in the US.

The Cross Bronx Expy isn't "2-4 lanes" that's for sure.

[Tarzanman]

Traffic is bad in NYC and DC and LA, but a car is not an absolute requirement for life there. If you don't have a car here in Atlanta, then you'd better own a bicycle because there are scores of places with no bus/train service nearby that are not accessible via sidewalks.

Also, we throw wider roads at just about every traffic problem.