Will the T-SPLOST Reduce Commute Times?
Decatur Metro | May 20, 2012
I guess when you’re message is “Untie Atlanta”, you invite questions about whether your $6 billion proposal will notably reduce traffic and commute times around Atlanta.
The AJC this morning has summarized the Atlanta Regional Commission’s findings from a 10-year traffic simulation program and shown that the figures overall are either impressive or underwhelming depend on what area you look at and/or which expert/non-expert you speak with. Atlanta’s infrastructure is a big ol’ expensive mistress, and though $6 billion may sound big compared to, say, our annual salaries, it’s a drop in the bucket for the metro area’s connection of road and rail. Or Mark Zuckerberg for that matter. But some figures seem heartening…
On average, the number of metro Atlantans able to reach job centers in under 45 minutes would rise just 6 percent by car, and about 20 percent by bus or train, if the projects are built. The new transit projects expect perhaps 75,000 or more daily boardings.
Regional planners insist that in the world of transportation design, a 6 percent or 20 percent jump in good commutes is a big deal.
And Emory would get the biggest boost of all…
A $700 million rail line along the Clifton Corridor would take mass transit access there from miserable to some of the region’s best. If the rail line is built, 220,000 additional metro residents could reach jobs there by transit within a manageable 45-minute commute, a 729 percent increase. Realistically, planners expect daily ridership of about 10,000 boardings, slightly less than what’s expected for the Beltline.
But even if its the major selling point, should any conversation about T-SPLOST be solely focused on congestion relief?
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