Warehouse owners are joining home buyers in seeking close-in locations that can shorten commutes. The trend could increase, given that the state transportation commissioner has said the delivery of goods to homes in metro Atlanta already is, “a challenge.”
The related challenges of affordable housing and traffic congestion are paired in a new report in Buckhead. Civic leaders have devised a proposal to increase the number of affordable homes in order to enable staffers to reside closer to work and not need a car to commute.
A proposal to save five specimen oak trees in exchange for tweaking the sidewalk requirements at a busy shopping center along Peachtree Road in Brookhaven, near MARTA’s Brookhaven Station, has received preliminary approval from city planners.
The job posting for Atlanta’s first transportation commissioner calls for experience with implementing Vision Zero, a mobility policy that includes reducing vehicular speed on city streets in order to improve safety for folks not in vehicles.
By Guest Columnist KEVIN H. POSEY, who writes about transportation and has served on related boards in the Washington region. He moved to Atlanta in 2017.
Atlanta’s BeltLine is perhaps the city’s best-known landmark. As with New York’s High Line, travel writers point it out as a key stop for those visiting Atlanta. However, that popularity poses a threat to its viability as a usable transportation corridor.
They never gave up. And after 30 years or so of efforts, the two partners and their families celebrated on Thursday the construction start of a warehouse in Tucker that is to be the foundation of the next generation of their furniture store – reflagged from Underpriced Furniture to Georgia Furniture Mart.
Metro Atlanta commuters who travel on roads may take some consolation in the notion that construction delays aren’t as bad as they could be. Georgia Department of Transportation has been commended for a program that reduces construction timelines – and cut a decade off one major project.
By David Pendered
Think of ARC’s long-range, regional planning blueprint done with 3-D animation. It would feel more alive, more real-time representational of the region it aims to serve. And the conversation has already started about the future the blueprint aims to inform.
By Guest Columnist DOUG JOINER, a lifelong child and adolescent advocate
In January 2012, I was introduced to Safe Routes to School in metro Atlanta through the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors via a Kaiser grant. As I assessed the program in metro Atlanta, two disturbing issues immediately caught my attention – children rarely factor in transportation planning; and low-wealth minority communities have even few safety provisions for children walking to school.
It’s a simple story from a simpler time. A mother asked a man to help her blind son. The man agreed. An audible tone was added to a crosswalk on a busy road. The son now can safely cross the road between his home and a bus stop after his ride home from school.
Transportation planners overlooked one aspect of Atlanta’s convention industry – the people who attend – and that evidently contributed to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ decision to halt the first step in a plan aimed at making Downtown more pleasant for pedestrians. In addition, the mayor ordered a review of the entire Downtown mobility plan by the city’s newly approved Transportation Department, which is to be functional by late 2020.
A new philosophy of mobility in Downtown Atlanta is to be ready for use in three years. Not everyone is on board. The Atlanta City Council on Monday issued a split decision, 11-4, in favor of the first phase of the concept – to convert part of Baker Street from a one-way to a two-way street.
A significant vote on part of the sweeping proposal to “revolutionize the way we move through Downtown Atlanta” into 2030 is on the agenda Monday, and the Atlanta City Council is slated to approve this step in a plan fostered by the group of influential business leaders, Central Atlanta Progress.
Atlanta residents are to be allowed to voice their thoughts about how the city’s newly created Department of Transportation goes about its business – including transit planning. Late 2020 is the target date for the new department to be fully functional, according to legislation approved Monday by the Atlanta City Council.
The outlook is bright for transit funding in a spending bill that on Thursday cleared a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee. However, chances that it has a prayer of becoming law have crumbled amid the latest round of discord over the Democrats’ calls for investigations into President Trump.
Next week is the final meeting for public comment on Cobb County’s proposed long-range mobility plan. The plan is to include recommendations on potential transit expansion.
Commuter response to the recently opened toll lanes along the Northwest Corridor is above expectations as drivers use the toll lanes that run adjacent to the highway system in Cobb and Cherokee counties, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.
By Guest Columnist ERIC GANTHER, a mobility planner in metro Atlanta
Congestion pricing manages traffic with money instead of time. Without congestion pricing, we pay by sitting in traffic. With it, we pay a small fee and get a shorter trip. The HOT lanes on I-75 in Cobb and Clayton counties and on I-85 in Gwinnett County are examples of how this works, except with congestion pricing there are no “free” lanes.
Atlanta’s proposed stand-alone transportation department is expected to salvage a mobility system that’s so systemically broken the city has a long history of farming work to outside entities – including the Atlanta BeltLine, Midtown Alliance and Central Atlanta Progress.
At $1.3 million, the grant isn’t big in the context of state highway funding. But Gov. Brian Kemp won praise from local residents for overseeing approval of funding to help restore a road washed out in February by a rockslide in Pickens County – just north of metro Atlanta.
Private wildlife sanctuaries open to public Saturday as part of Atlanta Audubon tourSeptember 13, 2019 - 2:20 pm
More EMTs to be located inside airport's passenger terminal to reduce response timesSeptember 11, 2019 - 6:40 pm
Chip Rogers: Former Senate majority leader now battling Airbnb, and othersSeptember 10, 2019 - 10:37 pm
Will opioid settlements become the tobacco settlement on steroids?September 9, 2019 - 6:44 pm
Isakson's departure completes the generational change that began with the governor's raceSeptember 2, 2019 - 6:33 pm
Defining mental health, in a president or a national epidemic, can be trickyAugust 26, 2019 - 7:27 pm
Column: Jewish Federation raises $19 million, names chief foundation officerJuly 19, 2019 - 7:37 pm
Column: Junior Achievement of Georgia spinoff raises $27 million to transform high school educationJuly 19, 2019 - 6:55 pm
Column: Junior Achievement of Georgia spinoff raises $27 million to transform high school educationJuly 5, 2019 - 12:03 am
