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| | | (SPECIAL/www.northfulton.com)Participating in the ribbon cutting were Councilman David Belle Isle, Fulton Commission Lynne Riley, Judge Jim Matoney, Councilwoman Debbie Gibson, Mayor Arthur Letchas, Engineering Director John Moskaluk, Councilman John Monson, Ga. Department of Transportation Commissioner Harold Linenkohl, Councilman Jim Paine and Brandon Beach, North Fulton CID president. (click for larger version) | |
December 26, 2007
Traffic remains the top issue on almost any survey of Alpharetta residents, and indeed for any metro Atlanta community.
Some improvements have been completed. In 2007 motorists saw more lanes open on Ga. 400 and major intersections undergo improvements or be designated for work. Westside Parkway's northernmost section, between Webb Bridge Road and Windward Parkway, opened Aug. 17. Thomas Enterprises continues work on its $12 million-plus section from Webb Bridge south to Old Milton Parwkay. And the North Fulton Community Improvement District just recently bought the final parcel of land for right of way for the southernmost section, between Sanctuary Parkway and Mansell Road.
All zoning applications require that attention be paid to a development's impact on local traffic. The largest applications, called Developments of Regional Interest, must undergo scrutiny at the regional level with both the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority examining them. Those bodies might decide a development would be of regional interest, but they also would request traffic improvements be made part of the plan.
Alpharetta's Community Development staff has taken a GRTA request that Prospect Park provide some sort of shuttle system to connect it to MARTA's public transit system a step further. Other applicants have found conditions that would require them to provide similar service, with an eye to reduce traffic bottlenecks.
A proposal for a mixed-use development at Windward and North Point parkways received a recommendation for approval by city staff because it is next door to a MARTA Park & Ride lot that might one day become a rail station site. Community Development Director Diana Wheeler identified that site as unique by being at a major crossroads – Ga. 400 and Windward Parkway – with public transit on site.
On the regional front, Mike Evans, chairman of the Georgia Department of Transportation Board, finds it ridiculous that metro Atlanta drivers have to sit in traffic congestion every day.
He commented in late October on a report released by TRIP, a national nonprofit transportation research group, which found that Georgia faces a $51 billion shortfall through 2035 in funding for needed road, highway and bridge repairs and improvements.
"I'm sick and tired of congestion, and I don't subscribe to the notion that we have to sit through it," said Evans, a Cumming resident.
"When I became a board member five years ago, I said then and I have not changed my mind that [Ga.] 400 is my No. 1 priority," he said.
But with 10 times as many vehicles added to highways as new lanes can handle, even widening Ga. 400 to McFarland Road didn't relieve congestion so much as move it farther south.
To no one's surprise, Ga. 400 from I-285 to McFarland Road takes three of the top 10 spots as having the worst traffic congestion in metro Atlanta. The downtown connector and I-285 from Ga. 400 to I-85, take the top three most congested sections of highway in metro Atlanta.
"You can widen 400 all you want, and if you are southbound all you are going to do is get to the traffic jam a little quicker at 285 and 400," Evans said.
- www.northfulton.com
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