A proposed underground tunnel that would bust it’s way through many East Atlanta neighborhoods to “alleviate traffic” on the Downtown Connector is projected on a GDOT Workshop Project sheet (page 11) to cost $3.7 billion dollars.

Which got me thinking.  What would any half-sane, non-political body (that’s you!) do with $4 billion to elevate Atlanta’s traffic congestion?

P.S.  Click the map to the right to enlarge it.

Lee reports in on a pretty common DeKalb Avenue event, with a twist…

Commuters were surprised to find the suicide lane on DeKalb Avenue was not green for in-bound traffic this morning. The Atlanta police were gently encouraging some of the more confused drivers.

Is this a permanent change or simply a errant clock?

I grant that the cop is a new touch, so maybe something is up, but the missing weekday morning “green arrow” happens semi-regularly.

Of course, a lack of traffic signals has never stopped many DeKalb Ave. commuters and their God-given right to do whatever necessary to get to work on time.

A recent study released by the traffic information firm INRIX shows that Atlanta’s traffic congestion dropped 36% in 2008 to the 12th worst in the nation from the 10th worst the year before .

But is this drop in congestion something to cheer about?  Well certainly high gas prices – while they lasted – had something to do with it.  However the other major factor contributing to a 30% drop in congestion nationwide this past year is a slowed economy.  Less people commuting to jobs, fewer goods being shipped, etc…

So you be the judge.

Did Atlanta drop from 10th to 12th because we saw a larger percentage of people hop on public transportation than our U.S. city competition?  Or is our economy actually just slowing at a faster rate than cities like 10th ranked Minneapolis or 11th ranked Philly?  The answer is some kind of combination of those two.

h/t: Atlanta Business Chronicle

In my ongoing pursuit to bring you all needless city rankers regarding things you already know, here’s a new one out by Forbes.com, which rates Atlanta, GA as the city with the worst commute in the whole darn country.

OK, so we’ve achieved our goal of #1 status. Unless we’re looking to compete with Shanghai to be “Worst in the World”, let’s quickly get through the awards ceremony (and the after-parties) so we can implement some solutions to the traffic problem. No? You need more time to create additional committees and action plans? OK…just as long as you’re not stalling.

You’re not stalling GA legislature, right?

[picture courtesy of Forbes.com]

Born and raised north of the Mason-Dixon, I was brought up to believe in a few certain basic “truths”. Like that the tooth fairy would always leave money under my pillow, or that the Red Sox were forever-cursed by the sale of Babe Ruth in exchange for a crappy Broadway play, or that a yellow traffic signal meant “proceed with caution”. One by one, all of these wonderful fables have come crashing down upon me. First the tooth fairy refused my request for more than a quarter, then the Red Sox crushed the Cardinals in four games, and finally this morning I was nearly T-boned by a jacked-up Ford F-150 at the intersection of Hill St. and DeKalb Ave under a flashing yellow light.

How I long for the time when I could revel in my hatred of the Sox and believe that a flashing yellow meant “proceed with caution”. However, I will never experience these feelings again, because its no longer the 2004 post-season and because I live in Atlanta, Georgia.

In Atlanta, a flashing yellow to some means “do the courteous thing and stop for the poor souls stuck at the flashing red”, while to others it means “slip into the slipstream of the car in front of you and blow through the intersection”. While option 2 is certainly less safe, I would argue that its the well-mannered drivers in option 1 that really put paint jobs at risk.

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