The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A look inside Metro Atlanta’s $172.6 billion, 30-year traffic plan that covers 20 counties
The recent COVID-19 pandemic and precautions have turned Atlanta’s roads into ghost towns. But the commute won’t stay that way forever, of course.
In late February, which feels like an eternity ago, the Atlanta Regional Commission adopted a comprehensive 30-year-plan they say will reduce congestion and improve safety. The blueprint rings up at $172.6 billion,
they said.
“We’re a regional planning agency, and for transportation, it’s the 20 counties surrounding the City of Atlanta,” John Orr, the ARC manager of
the Transportation Access and Mobility Group, explained on
the most recent WSB Traffic Podcast on wsbradio.com. This is a region of about 5.8 million people, Orr said.
“We have to do a plan — maintain a plan — all the way
through 2050 that addresses their mobility and accessibility needs, addresses congestion, expands transit.”
Orr said the ARC works closely with the federal government, GDOT and local governments to come up with the projects in this plan.
“The largest source of funds is actually from local governments, where they’ll pass local sales tax referendums,” Orr said.
He also said these local counties and cities know best what
their transportation needs are, so that is why they have this large influence and why ARC
has representatives from each part of the region.
The state funds are also a big revenue pipeline for this plan, especially since Georgia
changed the motor fuel tax calculations in 2015. Those rates essentially had not changed since the 1970s: “We’ve actually been able to double the amount of revenues coming in at the state level.”
Federal funding, of course, also is part of the recipe for putting this transportation plan into action, but the local funds are the biggest piece.
State and local officials meet and share data about where the worst crash locations are, where congestion is the worst, and where alternative mobility options (such as busing or bike paths, for example) make the most sense. Once projects become prospective, the federal government provides oversight on how the overall plan itself actually comes to fruition.
“At the end of the day, they want to make sure federal funds follow a logical, rational planning process and that that process does ultimately result in the projects you see in the regional transportation plan,” Orr said, adding, “We have to update our regional transportation plan every four years.”
Orr did say that these plans may get amendments as local plans and funding measures change. This latest plan updates one from 2016 that projected out to 2040.
The ARC forecasts nearly three million people could move to the 20-county Atlanta region by 2050 and that transit ridership could double to 1.1 million. They predict that their plan could decrease tailpipe emissions by over 21,000 tons per year.
Orr said that nearly 60% of the plan, representing $102 billion, is earmarked for the least attractive expenditures: maintenance and modernization.
Orr said if money isn’t paid for the fixes now, then communities will pay more later for bigger repairs: “It includes our communities maintaining our roads, repairing bridges, all the way from replacing traffic signals. And a major amount of this funding goes to our transit system.”
None of this includes adding new items in those categories, just updating older ones.
But the plan does set aside $11 billion for transit extension, including high-capacity transit between Jonesboro and the East Point MARTA Station, a project still vague in what that would actually be. Bus rapid-transit lines (which give buses their own lanes to move regardless of traffic) are also planned for Clayton County, for a corridor between GSU Stadium and the MARTA rail line and the Atlanta Beltline, for an area between KSU and the Arts Center, and between the Doraville MARTA Station and Sugarloaf Mills in Gwinnett County.
The plan allows for engineering the Atlanta Beltline to connect with transit. But it also allots money for expansion of the maligned Atlanta Streetcar, which officials hope to connect with the popular Beltline.
“It will allow us to ultimately be able to move trips off of the roadway network for a lot of the people that currently live along this east side of the city,” Orr said.
This area east of Downtown Atlanta has experienced some of the highest growth rates in the region. The jury will be out for a while on whether the Atlanta Streetcar is the elixir for traffic-crowding there.
Orr said the overall plan is to expand transit in the City of Atlanta and then the rest of the region, and that plan goes far beyond expensive heavy commuter rail (like MARTA trains).
The ARC’s plan assigns $27 billion for the already announced rebuilds of the I-285 at I-20 interchanges in DeKalb and Fulton and I-20 at Ga. 138 in Rockdale. The managed toll lanes along I-285 anywhere north of I-20, other parts of the Transform I-285/ Ga. 400 project, and the new I-85 at McGinnis Ferry interchange in Suwanee also are part of the “bottlenecks” portion of the plan.
And there are long-term plans for road widening on Piedmont Road near Lenox, Ga. 20 through Cherokee and Forsyth counties (in five phases), Ga. 85 in Fayette and Clayton counties, Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, and Ga. 42/23 in McDonough and Stockbridge.
And $10 billion goes to what ARC terms as “mobility alternatives”: expanded bike and pedestrian trails and more funding for Georgia Commute Options (which encourages carpooling and — very topically — teleworking). This section also has plans for a Livable Centers Initiative — essentially plans for more walkable areas between home, work, and play.
This list of projects forecasts until 2050, so Orr said that things can change. Projects in the “Transportation Improvement Plan,” which are in the first six years of the plan, absolutely will happen, per federal law. But Orr said that items beyond that, “To be honest with you, it is not unusual, periodically, for a project to be revisited. And it could potentially change or be lowered in priority or even scrapping the plan completely.”
The inevitable fluctuation in state and local revenue during this COVID-19 outbreak could theoretically affect funding for the longer-term plans. But that is not determinable or even important right now.
So if there’s something on the ARC’s plan that doesn’t sit well with you, petition your leaders or the ones in the area of concern. Plans can change.
The citizens and the government working in concert is the best way to shape transportation plans, no matter the price tag.