{"70345":{"#nid":"70345","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Federal Government Plan Aims To Curb Metro Atlanta Traffic","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe federal government is investing $110 million to support an innovative Georgia state plan to reduce traffic congestion in Metropolitan Atlanta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced today. The plan will allow more commuters to take advantage of I-85\u0027s HOV lanes northeast of the city, and will allow for the establishment of new high-speed commuter bus service into downtown, Secretary Peters noted.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This ambitious plan will tame traffic, pump new money into the region\u0027s transit services and redefine the way people use I-85,\u0022 said Secretary Peters. \u0022The goal is simple, make commutes reliable, not ridiculous.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has helped shepherd the project for two years, from honing the technology to be utilized to analyzing the impact this project will have on metro Atlanta gridlock.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe result should be a smoother - and swifter - ride for road-weary commuters.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It increases the ability of facilities to carry vehicles without making a new right of way,\u0022 said Dr. Randall Guensler, professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. \u0022If you look at the I-85 corridor, there\u0027s no room to expand. People have the option of buying into faster travel and our focus groups said that was valued by all income groups.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESimilar programs have been initiated in Denver, Houston, Orange County, Calif., San Diego and Minneapolis, with the latter system most closely resembling the plan destined for Gwinnett, Guensler said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to the Texas Transportation Institute\u0027s 2007 Urban Mobility Report, the Atlanta metro area is tied for the second-highest level of traffic congestion as measured in terms of hours of delay per rush hour driver. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s involvement in this effort to break the bottleneck is just beginning. Guensler is overseeing a vehicle monitoring program for drivers who elect to cruise through the new lanes. Measurements will include household traffic behavior, emissions and potential equity impacts.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe focus group will include 700 households comprising 1,500 vehicles, which include express buses.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGuensler calls it \u0027the most comprehensive travel behavior study that\u0027s ever been done\u0027\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe first phase of the project will institute a network consisting of dynamically-priced high occupancy toll lanes on I-85, stretching from I-285 to Old Peachtree Road by January 2011. Future phases of Atlanta\u0027s congestion plan will include a 49-mile network of additional HOV-to-HOT lane conversions along I-85, I-75 and I-20. Similar HOT lane projects have been implemented in Minneapolis and Southern California, and these areas have already seen a reduction in the amount of congestion during peak travel times.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlso included in the grant is $30 million for transit service enhancement that will operate on the newly converted expressways. The funding will go towards the purchase of new buses and the construction and expansion of park-and-ride facilities. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAtlanta is the most recent city to receive federal funding from the Department of Transportation for its efforts to establish a more permanent Federal program focused on innovative solutions to improve mobility and fight increasing congestion in metropolitan areas. Details on Secretary Peters\u0027 innovative Reform Proposal can be found at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.FightGridlockNow.gov\u0022 title=\u0022www.FightGridlockNow.gov\u0022\u003Ewww.FightGridlockNow.gov\u003C\/a\u003E. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The money we are providing today will make commuting faster, transit better and small businesses more competitive,\u0022 said Secretary Peters. \u0022Together, we\u0027ll make traffic in Atlanta go with the wind.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Georgia Tech a partner in $110 million toll project on I-85"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe federal government is investing $110 million to support an innovative Georgia state plan to reduce traffic congestion in Metropolitan Atlanta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced today.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The U.S. government is spending $110 million to reduce Atlanta t"}],"uid":"27281","created_gmt":"2008-11-25 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:20","author":"Lisa Grovenstein","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-11-25T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2008-11-25T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1897","name":"Civil Engineering"},{"id":"1899","name":"HOV"},{"id":"1898","name":"Toll"},{"id":"1262","name":"traffic"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDon Fernandez\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=dfernandez8\u0022\u003EContact Don Fernandez\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["Don.fernandez@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}