GRTA's
NSAS Reveal Congestion Growth Can Be Limited
Annual Economic Impact of $400 Million to $1.3 Billion Predicted
ATLANTA
- A major transportation infrastructure study of the northern Atlanta
region has found that an expansion of the road and transit system within
this sub-area - combined with effective land use management and steps to
limit travel demand - will enable the region to significantly lessen the
impacts of future population and development growth in this fast-growing
area, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) announced
today.
The
Northern Sub-Area Study (NSAS) is bounded by I-75 (west), I-85 (east),
I-285 (south) and Georgia SR 20 (north).
The
study also predicted that the economic benefits from reduced congestion,
if any of the alternatives are fully implemented, would range from $300
million to more than $1.3 billion per year.
The
findings were presented today to the NSAS Steering Committee, comprising
local government officials, interest groups and citizen members from the
study area. The results of the study will be provided to the
Atlanta Regional Commission for its consideration in the update of the
Regional Transportation Plan.
The
study looked at three development alternatives: 1)
"needs-based" (looking at current development patterns and
improvements in the current long-range regional plan), 2)
"policy-based" (encouraging growth in existing major centers
and corridors and implementing more highway and transit improvements),
and 3) "local-based" (using existing land use plans developed
by local governments in the study area). The study examined each
alternative to determine the impact of the sub-area by the year 2005.
The
study found that, with extensive but financially realistic expansion of
the road and transit system, combined with equally extensive travel
demand management and road operations programs and effective land use
management, each of the alternatives could perform acceptably and
mitigate the impacts of predicted household, population, and jobs
growth.
The
study also revealed each of the alternatives would produce reductions in
vehicle travel in the study area as compared to the current Regional
Transportation Plan (RTP). Among the key findings is that by
focusing growth in major activity centers and along major transportation
corridors, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) would also decrease.
Transit use would increase in each of the alternatives.
The
travel demand management and road operations tools the NSAS examined
include extensive use of High Occupancy Toll lanes (HOT lanes), ramp
metering, and signal synchronization.
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