Originally Posted by AtlMidtowner
I will make a bet that all of those against freeways on this forum have a limited lifestlye that have no real need to enter in the real commercial activity of Atlanta or that they emotionally are afraid of entering a highway with 4 to 8 lanes of packed traffic moving 40-80mph. Every city in the USA, including those cities mentioned by any anti-highway forumers such as Detroit, WashingtonDC, SanFran, NYC and Chicago all have limited access highways (not just interstates) right into the downtown areas. It is totally untrue that these cities do not have highways to the center....I have not only used these highways in my life, but now you can even see them on mapquest. I absolutely loved the convenience on my trip to DC driving almost directly to the Potomac, or taking a taxi from LaGuardia directly to lower Manhattan on limited access highways, or driving to my brother at the University of Chicago almost exclusively on highways....
I will also make a bet that those actually involved in Atlanta's commerce not only wholeheartedly support quick access to all points in the city via limited access highways, but also would support more light rail and public transportation for employees. When I lease out office space ( currently have just under 100 office tenants), the main questions are the following: cost, office layout, building appearance and neighborhood, accessbility to highway, accessbility to public transportation. Those are unquestionably top 5 factors of leasability of office space........
Dorey's CLC maps every single office building in Atlanta, and it will be VERY obvious that succesful office buildings and office parks are located near easy access points from limited access highways (within 1.5 miles of an exit).
Even Atlantic Station never would have been built without the 17th Street Bridge and ramp.
(On another note, I drive home from Marietta/Cumberland area to 14th STreet every day. It takes me about 11 minutes, and then another 10 minutes on the surface streets from the 14th street bridge to my condo. Now if I took Cobb Parkway to Northside Drive to 14th STreet, which I have taken me before, the trip would take me about 45 minutes, somtimes even more, as Cobb Parkway, Northside Drive, Huff Drive and Howell Mill areas are living nightware during traffic times. These suggestions to take surface streets simply do not come from people that actually have used the surface streets during.)
If the congestion on the 2 or 3 miles downtown connector slows to 20 miles per hour, which it actually rarely does, then the users are only losing a less than 3 to 4 minutes driving time!! If you take surface streets, each red light will last anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute!! As I stated on a previous post, it takes about 1.5 hours during low traffic time to travel on surface streets from Vinings to Lilburn, but about 23 minutes on the highways.....there is no real intelligent debate, the limited access highways system is a real asset to continue economic prosperity of Atlanta. Of course it is not perfect.......
I am just shocked that I actually have agreed with MarketsWork on something......LOL
I am also shocked that people claiming to be intelligent actually think ridding the city of limited access highways would improve traffic.
If we want all the proposed highrises in downtown and midtown to be cancelled, shut down the connector!! (Lets actually have someone interview Jim Borders, Tom Cousins, Mark Randall, Donald Trump and other developer on their opininions on development and limited access highways in the Atlanta market).
Maybe a compromise would be to turn the connector into a lake, and redirect the highway over Piedmont by I-85 (getting ridding of the strip clubs) , then over Monroe and Boulevard (getting rid of the highest crime area in Atlanta) and then back to the current connector south of the downtown city area......LOL Downtown and Midtown would have a beautiful Lake, and Virginia Highlands wont have to worry about the Beltline.....LOL
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