Car, traffic and congestion lovers? Here's your Atlanta AUTOMOBILE thread. - Page 3

Eeyore · #41 Posted **Apr 3, 2010, 6:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante2308

Yes I recognized LA scenery and the abundance of visible mass transit though having never been to LA, I had no idea where in the city it was.

That stack-interchange has competition with Spaghetti Junction. Compare to Greater Atlanta:

Which one would you prefer?

Since you guys are comparing interstate interchanges here is the largest one in Colorado. It is the junction of I-70 and I-25 in Denver and is known as the "mouse trap" as back in the 1960's there use to be a tower where cops would catch speeders.

Below are some shots of I-25 in Denver

I hope this is not off topic but since I saw people talking about other cities and comparing them I thought why not include Denver?

dante2308 · #42 Posted **Apr 4, 2010, 2:15 PM**

Have an aerial?

Eeyore · #43 Posted **Apr 5, 2010, 9:23 PM**

I do not. That was my friend taking pictures as I was driving to downtown.

cybele · #44 Posted **Apr 5, 2010, 11:24 PM**

Well, I have been working on a map of traffic patterns in the ATL but it is hard because you've got people going every which way under the sun.

Well, I'm going to take that thing down, it's not ready for prime time yet.

Fiorenza · #45 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 2:28 AM**

Does it entail removing the downtown connector, as Andrea used to suggest?

cybele · #46 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 3:35 AM**

Well, why would anybody in their right mind want to tear up the Downtown connector. It's the main way for people on the south side to get up north and the main way for people on the north to get to the Airport. We've already spent a billion dollars on a perfectly good road that millions of people use, so why tear it down?

Anyway the problem with my map is I'm trying to put in the main ways folks are getting to the places they're going from where they are coming from. However when you put in the whole shebang it looks like a big bowl of worms, which is what's messing me up.

dante2308 · #47 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 3:42 AM**

I'm sorry I missed it. I need to make sure I check this place more often.

Fiorenza, it's your fault and attitude why Andrea had to leave. Why after all this time not posting is the only thing you would try to do is pile on some more? Don't you have any common decency?

cybele · #48 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 4:04 AM**

Well, here's what I have got so far and everybody will probably say it's no good, but it's just a work in progress:

atl2phx · #49 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 5:01 AM**

a work in progress?

what is that and what data is it based on?

cybele · #50 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 3:15 PM**

Well, I knew people would say it's stupid. I looked up the numbers on where people come from to go to work and tried to put in where they are likely to wind up, countywise. Then I added in some stuff I have just seen myself.

Once it's finished I'm sending it to Perdue and them, and I may send it to Obama and his people, too. But I probably won't hear back from anybody as usual.

dante2308 · #51 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 4:28 PM**

I have a suggestion for that map. If you keep that same color scheme based on job centers, you can trace highway and major road traffic along the traffic routes based on a volume threshold.

Or for simplicity of viewing and to allow for detail, you could make one for each job center and use a gradient of colors to indicate volume of commuting traffic to each center along the transportation route.

cybele · #52 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 5:09 PM**

Well those are some dang good ideas, Dante. Back to the drawing boards, something like this could be just what those folks down in the Gold dome are looking for.

reet · #53 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 6:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybele

Well, here's what I have got so far and everybody will probably say it's no good, but it's just a work in progress:

Interesting project. Looking at this map makes me think of the way that broad changes in employment and residential densities can develop over only a few years (as has happened often in Metro Atlanta) while changes in the transportation infrastructure that effectively serves those densities are much slower and require high expenditures of tax money.

This lag time between changes produces high traffic and long commutes that affect everyone in the metro directly or indirectly, resulting in lost money due to lessened productivity.

It isn't possible to make transportation routes as malleable as they need to be in order to quickly keep up with population changes when the built environment covers the land so completely. Unfortunately, underground transportation routes that would pass beneath existing developments are incredibly expensive (and unpopular). It would help if residential and commercial developments were more compact in land size so that there could be wide margins of undeveloped land to accommodate changes in density.

Public transportation routes would also be easier to build in ways that effectively serve the population if commercial and residential centers were more compact and not so spread out. For maximum use of land space, in fact, you could make residential and commercial structures especially compact by building them vertical rather than horizontal. These vertical structures could extend high in the air -- so high that they appear to 'scrape' the sky.

Holy crap! Quick, Ma -- wake up the kids! Someone's talking about skyscrapers and urbanism on the Skyscraper Forum!

Just kidding. Seriously, it's an interesting map. And I like dante's suggestion about mapping volume threshold. I lived for several years in that Cobb Galleria area where all the pink arrows are pointing and the traffic was soooo awful. They could use some relief.

cybele · #54 Posted **Apr 6, 2010, 8:54 PM**

Well, that is some more good ideas, reet, thank you kindly. Y'all have got me fired up to get back to work on this thing.

Fiorenza · #55 Posted **Apr 7, 2010, 12:00 AM**

Quote:

Once it's finished I'm sending it to Perdue and them, and I may send it to Obama and his people, too. But I probably won't hear back from anybody as usual.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't snag some grant money from the fed or Georgia DOT to continue with such development.

rythym · #56 Posted **Apr 8, 2010, 8:23 PM**

Cybele, Can I get that map on a t-shirt?

cybele · #57 Posted **Apr 10, 2010, 12:04 PM**

Well, it looks like the car situation might take care of itself.

Sign of the Times: In the U.S., More Cars Are Trashed Than Bought

dante2308 · #58 Posted **Apr 10, 2010, 10:33 PM**

What car situation?

TarHeelJ · #59 Posted **Apr 11, 2010, 12:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybele

Well, here's what I have got so far and everybody will probably say it's no good, but it's just a work in progress:

It looks like you put some good effort into this...I was thinking there should probably be another employment center around the airport?

cybele · #60 Posted **Apr 11, 2010, 2:55 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dante2308

What car situation?

Well, people saying there is too many of them and whatnot. It looks like they are more or less gobbling themselves up over time.