It was a sight to behold! Thursday afternoon in Atlanta a tractor trailer carrying particle board overturned on the 285 southbound exit ramp from I-20 eastbound on the west side of town. The tractor flipped over. The trailer literally exploded blowing chunks of board and other debris across 285 below the overpass and shutting down the ramp. Within about 15 minutes traffic backed up over 11 miles on 285 all the way past the Cobb Cloverleaf! Over 11 miles! Vehicles on I-20 eastbound came to a stop near 6 Flags.
This happened about 3:00 P.M. Thursday. At 3:50 P.M. the people at the scene gave “notice to proceed” as a TRIP event. 61 minutes later all lanes on 285 and the exit ramp were re-opened! Simply amazing. And your tax dollars at work! TRIP stands for “Towing Recovery Incentive Program.” It’s a program from the Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Task Force funded through a grant from the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). It trains and certifies tow truck operators in quick clearance and provides a cash bonus for their efforts. Had there been no TRIP program it would have taken hours to clear that interchange. And though the delays on 285 were substantial the “TIME” it took to take your TRIP home Thursday afternoon was substantially reduced. And that’s your bonus!
photo by David Cogswell
Well Mother nature finally managed to reach out and slap us, hitting the region with between 2 and 5 inches of snow Sunday after a Saturday that saw the mercury hovering near 70! What?!? And, overall, we did pretty good. Putdown your cellphone and pat yourself on the back. And thank your deity it happened on a Sunday. We were also fortunate that it didn’t drop below freezing until three a.m giving the wind plenty of time to blow dry the roads. Although there were thousands of little patches of ice everywhere. The DoT advised everyone not to head out this morning until the sun came up so we could see better where the black ice was biting. But I had to laugh when I saw that, in the pre-dawn darkness, even with the DoT’s warning, traffic was averaging 80 miles per hour on I-75 northbound coming up from Clayton County headed for the downtown connector! Atlanta may be the city “too busy to hate” but it’s also the city “too busy to slow down”!
I’ve been reading with interest efforts to streamline the state Department of Transportation. Apparently it may involve an internecine feud between the executive and legislative branches of state government (must be taking a cue from Washington!). Governor Sonny Perdue appears to be trying to wrest control of the DoT from state lawmakers. He wants to replace their 13-member board, that the entire General Assembly elects, with an 11-member board the 
governor would appoint along with the Speaker of the House & the Lt.Governor. Now I’m all for streamlining the DoT. It needs it. Too many disparate agencies are involved in the decision-making process about what gets done which is why not much gets done or it takes so long. But I’m against a board appointed mainly by the governor. Atlanta has enough problems getting anything from a Governor from south Georgia. We haven’t been all that lucky either with a legislature dominated by downstaters. But at least we get to elect lawmakers in both houses every 2 years while the governor gets 4 years (limited to two terms.) But Sonny’s argument is it makes the agency more accountable to the citizens of Georgia because we could go directly to the governor’s office if there was something we didn’t like (like toll lanes). And we could show our disapproval when the election rolled back around. Once. Versus 4 times if control stays where it is. In the state legislature. Where we have more more control.
I was talking to a friend of mine Monday who works for the city of Roswell. I was trying to get some things clear about 
road closures after I got copies of some city notices about them. Hardscrabble Road (one of my favorite names) is closed until the end of the month so they can realign the intersection with Crabapple. He was telling me it’ll work much better because of the odd way Rucker Road comes in near there. Then we were talking about Hembree being closed at Foe Killer Creek and Old Roswell Road being closed over the creek so they can replace the bridges. Both projects taking at least the rest of the year. And there’s the rub. Turns out by closing down those 2 roads it leaves only one way to cross the creek. Highway-9. Alpharetta Highway. And it’s causing problems for rush hour commuters coming and going through Alpharetta and Roswell. Remember if there’s a big wreck on 400 Highway-9 can only handle, at best, 1 in 5 cars that come off the big road.
Meaning gridlock. Lots of it.
I’m not sure what happened here during the planning process but I wonder if these traffic considerations were, well, considered?!? If you live, work or play around there how will you get around? Let me know at art@madmantraffic.com and help me bridge the gap!
I stand corrected! I got a note about my traffic light blog this week
from Chance Baxley here at my website. Chance and his co-workers
work with traffic lights and told me I was wrong about pressure plates.
Nope. No Pressure.
Electricity! There are wires laid into those cuts
you see in the pavement and they create what’s called an “inductance field.”
Chance tells me when a vehicle crosses over those wires, or “loops” as
they’re known, they detect the car’s metal and the cycle kicks in. He says
some loops are looped into coordinated systems that manage the flow of vehicles.
So that’s one reason why sometimes I don’t think the light “sees” my car.
It’s looking at the big picture. Although he did admit smaller cars could
be harder to detect because they have less metal in them. But there’s no
scientific proof of that. It still doesn’t change my basic premise. That
is you still have to pull up all the way to the line. Otherwise the system
may not detect your vehicle, big or small. And all of us behind you have
to pay for it. And my “zig-zagging” theory is still workable because I’m
making sure the loops detect me being, well, loopy! So thanks for the correction.
When it comes to telling you about traffic I don’t want to take any chances.
Atlanta’s a tough town to drive in. That’s why it’s important for all of
us to do our best. But I’ve noticed something very disturbing lately I
wanted to share. Did I miss something in Driver’s Ed (or maybe we need
Driver’s Ed)? Why do many of us NOT pull up all the way to the line at
the light? I see cars, trucks, etc., every day pullin’ up short. It drives
me crazy! Sometimes there’s enough room to pull another car in front.
Like, say, my car! What some of us fail to understand is if we don’t pull
up it won’t activate the traffic light timer system, especially in left
turn lanes. Then you have to wait for it to cycle through. There are pressure
plates at those lights and if you don’t pull up all the way they don’t work
and we get stuck longer at the light. CUT IT OUT! Pull up. The only reason
I can come up with why we don’t “finish the job” is fear. Many times we
see people turning left from the cross street “cut the corner” of the left
lane or turn lane. All I can say is if you’re that scared…then take the
bus. Otherwise, “man up.” You’re driving in Atlanta and we need all the
breaks we can get, not the brakes making you stop 10 feet short of the light!
In an article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle legislation is being introduced, again, to let us vote by region for transportation infrastructure improvements through local taxation. No one likes more taxes. But no one likes the prospect of traffic in Atlanta getting worse.
Unless your House Speaker Glen Richardson. Richardson opposes the idea of a regional approach to traffic instead proposing a statewide approach telling the ABC, “Let’s look at fixing transportation in Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Valdosta, you pick the area. Okay I will. ATLANTA, ATLANTA, ATLANTA! You can put the entire population of Valdosta into Turner Field! You can put the entire population of “metropolitan” Valdosta in the Georgia World Congress Center! And still have parking! No disrespect intended towards the “Azalea City” but I smell pork. And I know they used to have a great barbecue contest down yonder in Moultrie. But that’s not the kinda’ pork I smell and I’m not a “Packer backer.” Atlanta is the economic engine that drives the state. Glen Richardson doesn’t speak for me. Nor does he speak for the majority of people and businesses doin’ bid’ness in metropolitan Atlanta, the population of which would need about 100 Turner Fields. Let the people decide. Let them vote on a constitutional amendment. We don’t have time anymore to stop and smell the Azaleas in Lowndes County. Except maybe in March during the festival, if there’s not too much traffic trying to get outta’ Atlanta.
They’re out there floatin’ that idea of toll lanes again. This time on I-75 and 575 up into Cobb and Cherokee counties. And once again they’re talking about one of those so called, “public-private partnerships.” Only the state would fund most, if not all of the project according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And that’s where I have problems. If my memory serves me well (let’s hope) President Eisenhower came up with the interstate highway system because of the mishmash of toll roads and highways across the nation. Now we want to return to that because we can’t keep our spending priorities in order? If you’ve ever driven in and around Chicago you know what a pain in the butt all those toll roads can be. I am against toll roads. I see them as a symbol of failure. And I am dead-set against any private-for-profit companies getting involved because their priority is profit not traffic. They want to move money, not cars. And other than the TVA (and you can probably give me an argument there) these so-called public/private ventures simply don’t work. And you, as a citizen, are denied due process when you try to bring a grievance or change. There are a myriad of legal hurdles to overcome when we could simply MANAGE WHAT WE GOT!
Create express lanes; all you have to do is move the jersey walls (the concrete median barriers) to create the lanes. You can even utilize the idea of reversible lanes for rush hour traffic. It works! HoV lanes are a failure. This city has to move cars. Also start looking into leading-edge technology and innovation. Some fascinating work has been done in Florida on predictive accident technology (more on that later). It includes a new idea for variable speed limits. Instead of a posted sign you have electronic signs designed to slow things down or speed em’ up depending on the flow. We already have those big message signs in place.
Instead of thinking about profits why don’t we profit from our thinking?!?
…that’s why we invited you: Jim Maddux, party pooper. The Atlanta city councilman has apparently been breathing too much sewer gas from the city’s decaying infrastructure. He’s floating the lame-brained idea of turning off the lights on portions of 3 interstates that run through Atlanta so the city doesn’t have to pay the bill. But the city would pay the price. The Downtown Connector between Brookwood near 17th and I-20 is one of the 5 busiest stretches of 
road in the entire nation! And you want to turn out the lights or make the feds or state pay?!? Brian Allen who runs Gwinnett County’s DoT is thinking along the same lines. He tells the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “It may be more important to keep ambulances and fire trucks running than it is to have interstate lights.” Right. Sure. On I-85 in Gwinnett County. Believe me that road’s a hazard in broad daylight. Those vehicles will be worn out. Smooth move Ex-lax. In these treacherous economic times that we’re dealing with, on all levels, we need people, leaders, with workable solutions. Not poorly thought out ideas. It’s obvious there’s no one home at Jim Maddux’s house. But the lights are on.
Quo Vadis? Wither goest thou? Thursday on the Top End Perimeter there was a huge truck fire on 285 westbound between Chamblee Dunwoody & Ashford Dunwoody roads. The flatbed had been carrying bails of hay that caught fire. The driver managed to get his burning rig over to the side. Unfortunately the fire spread to the nearby trees. It took firemen hours to douse all the hot-spots. Part of the flatbed literally melted. They had to bring in cranes and front-loaders to help clean it up. And that heavy equipment got caught in the heavy delays, delaying the heavy lifting until later. Traffic backed up for almost 11 miles all the way down past the Stone Mountain Freeway! So whaddya’ do? Where do you go? I-285 across the top of the Atlanta doesn’t give you many choices. You’ve got to know your side streets. And yesterday that didn’t help because those surface streets were flooded with drivers bailing off trying to get around thus creating more gridlock. So in a case like that where do you go? All you can do is go with the flow.
