Los Angeles or Atlanta: Which city has the worst traffic?? (south, Florida)
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"Pickleball-Free American"
(set 8 days ago)
Location: St Simons Island, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thedudewiththeplan
I found the LA rail system much more extensive than Atlanta's. It goes to the coast, several suburbs and even Long Beach. Marta barely goes out of the city limits, let alone the suburbs, and some counties (Fayette and Forsyth) in metro Atlanta don't have public transportation of any kind (heck, not even taxi service)!!!
Do you really consider North Springs 'barely out of the city limits'?
Every time they do traffic studies, L.A. comes in at # 1 and Atlanta overall comes in around # 2. It'll be a while before Atlanta overtakes L.A., but eventually if our growth patterns continue the way they have since the late 70s, it will. At current growth trends, our traffic *might* overtake L.A. in about 20 years, but L.A. is still growing too (at a slower rate), so you never really know. There are areas of the city where it's relatively easy to get around, even during rush hour, but then there are other areas of the city that literally stay semi-clogged to clogged all day long. The top end of the beltway is especially notorious for causing people to have to go on antidepressants.
Three summers ago, we did surpass L.A. in the number of Federal rated "smog days" during the summer due to car exhaust. I'm not sure if we have since, but it's getting up there.
Atlanta was leading many cities in expanding rail for a while, but then it pretty much stalled out as far as future expansion plans go. L.A. is expanding/planning at a much faster pace than we are. Georgia also does not contribute anything financially to Atlanta's transit system. Maybe the Obama White House will change that with some Federal money boosting, but for now, most of Atlanta's transit/rail stuff is dead in the water regarding any expansions at all.
You realize I just posted a link showing ATL above LA right?
Interstate 5 just south of downtown LA? hehe 3-4 lane freeway with no possibility of expansion through the heart of this nations 2nd largest city? yea.. LA sucks.. rush hour is from about 5am to 9am... 4pm to 7pm... the SF bay area is horrible.. especially 205 i believe.. Hayward to Stockton?
LA has the Worst Spreaded out Traffic (If you know what i Mean)-LA freeway system is the Biggest and Some freeways are okay but some freeways are Very Congested,This is what I Mean by Spreaded out Traffic While Atlanta has Specific Spots/Interchanges where Traffic is Horrible (Even worse then here in LA).
They may be just as congested at some points... but LA congestion goes on and on and on and on, try to go from Santa Monica to Riverside in the evening on the interstate was absolutely the longest gridlock mass of transit I've ever seen... I have been through Atlanta many times during rush hour and it isn't near as bad, maybe from a distance of something 5 miles away, it is the same, but going 60 miles it is going to be like that the ENTIRE time for like 4 hours.
Just to throw this in Some Researches Said LA Area will have some of the cleanest Air in AMrica b/c Once Gas in out There will be a Cleaner Alternative Source,But when the Car Runs The Ac or Fan were actually cleaning the Air threw the Air Filters in the Cars and are exhaust will be Clean Air depending on what Alternative Fuel Source there will be.Hope fully it's Hydrogen,Or Ethanol.Thanks to The Cars in the Future they will really have a Clean Impact of the Air Quality.
Given that the LA Metro has 15 million residents versus 5 million in Atlanta, it is unsurprising that LA would have more congestion than Atlanta. However the true measure of the burden that commuters have to endure in the respective cities is average commute time. If you click on the link below, you will see that as of 2007, the average commute time in Atlanta (31.2) is slightly larger than it is in LA (28).
One Day in America - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/2007/america_numbers/commuting.html - broken link)
This also underscores the fact that land use patterns have a major impact on commute times. LA is slightly ahead of Atlanta in regards to promoting mixed-use development--allowing employees to live closer to their places of employment and activity centers. Atlanta has made strides in this as well, given the rapid population growth within the city limits over the past 8 years. I'm really eager to see how this all pans out in 10 years when I think mixed use developments become even more prevalent.
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