All the Many Solutions to Atlanta's Traffic Gridlock

Atlanta Magazine has gathered together five of the often discussed, but never implemented, plans to move people effortlessly around Atlanta. And they've thrown in one canard to see if you've been paying attention.

1 minute read

August 3, 2016, 6:00 AM PDT

By jwilliams @jwillia22


Monorail. Sydney

Slayer / Flickr

Sky gondolas, monorails, and personal rapid transit have all been bandied about at some point as possible solutions to worsening traffic in different cities across the country. Max Blau of Atlanta Magazine provides a short list of the plans for better modes of transit that have popped up in Atlanta but for whatever reason have failed to gain any traction. He also includes one faux-suggestion just to make things interesting. Our favorite unrealized plan:

Downtown Connector ad absurdum

In 2009 GOP gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine called for a “parallel” downtown Connector east of the current interstate that would create a shortcut from Gwinnett County to the Atlanta airport. What about all of the neighborhoods in the way? Not a problem, he said, as a private company could build it underground. The idea, never seriously studied, is now deader than Oxendine’s political career.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 in Atlanta Magazine

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