Traffic, Traffic, Traffic!!!!!!! It's going to get Worse! (Atlanta, Columbus: new house, neighborhoods) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

Buy1Get1Free · 02-14-2007, 12:35 PM

My husband and I have been thinking about purchasing a new house in the Powder Springs Cobb/Paulding area and after driving around there on a few weekends I'm concerned about traffic. It seems that there are thousands of new homes being built in the area, including Austell and Mableton and no real highway access? Every house we looked at said to take E-W connector or 20 to Thorton Rd.

What is going on, I mean are there any plans to build any major roads up that way? I can imagine that when all of those homes become occupied that there will be pure gridlock on the roads. Has anyone else noticed this or does anyone know what is going to be done to keep this from happening? Maybe I'm just overly worried, but there are TONS of new homes out there and no major highways or roads.

gt6974a · 02-14-2007, 04:17 PM

you have 278/Thorton and Dallas Highway to E-W connector. They're all major 4 lane highways. What else do you need? Place has been only been popular for last 5-7 years and they did a great job with the E/W connector and Dallas rd. Thorton has been a little slower but used more

What's a good example of access to highway access(I assume you mean interstate). You're looking at places far away from the interstate. People move out there for the cheaper housing but keep working in Atlanta. Should be expected but at least you know before you decide.

Buy1Get1Free · 02-14-2007, 06:34 PM

Have you ever driven down the E-W connector during Rush hour?? It's already awful and with the thousands of new homes coming onto the market it's only going to get worse. That's why I asked if there were any upcoming plans to widen roads or add additional ones. I realize that they widened Thorton and added the E-W connector, but they are already extremely congested. If you do a search for newer homes (2000+) in Marietta, Austell, Powder Springs and Mableton (just to name a few) the directions all say something about Thorton Road or E-W connector. If they are this bad now, what's going to happen in the next 5+ years if there are no plans for additional road work?

Everyone's heard that Paulding is just booming, and it's booming with housing, it's not booming with jobs. So more affordable or not, the houses aren't free and people will need to find jobs outside of working at some of Paulding's new resturants to pay for them. That's why they drive to Atlanta.

Maybe more big businesses should move to the suburbs, I'm sure suburban families would love to not have to drive into the hell that is the city of Atlanta during rush hour to get to work.

jjordan · 02-14-2007, 07:16 PM

If someone wants to move all the way to Paulding County then they should be prepared to deal with the traffic. Businesses should not have to move their offices to the hinterlands so some suburbanites can be closer to work! Furthermore, widening roads only postpones (and sometimes not!) the inevitable.

DoveDiva · 02-14-2007, 08:06 PM

Not everyone who lives out there takes those roads to get to work.

I live out in D'Ville and I frequent the Austell/Mableton/Hiram/Powder Springs/Dallas area. Sure, I could take Thornton/C.H. James/GA-6, but like most westside residents, I learned very quickly which secondary roads can get me from Pt. A to Pt. B much faster than Thornton. Same thing with the E-W Connector.

In my opinion it's no different than the traffic on Cobb Parkway, Barrett Parkway, or Mansell Road. Traffic is a part of life here in Atlanta--you adapt.

Ghanley · 02-14-2007, 08:51 PM

Everything you do in the metro area is dictated by traffic. It isn'y going to get any better...you either accept it as a way of life, or do what we are doing...move out of state!

gt6974a · 02-15-2007, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buy1Get1Free

Everyone's heard that Paulding is just booming, and it's booming with housing, it's not booming with jobs. So more affordable or not, the houses aren't free and people will need to find jobs outside of working at some of Paulding's new resturants to pay for them. That's why they drive to Atlanta.

Maybe more big businesses should move to the suburbs, I'm sure suburban families would love to not have to drive into the hell that is the city of Atlanta during rush hour to get to work.

The only thing you'll see out that way is 92 get four laned and that's it.

Well, I don't really see the point of moving anything out to Paulding or West Cobb. There in lies the same problem that you're having, access to 85/75/285/400 for trucks and employees. Big companies would move their companies to a place like Macon or Columbus, some maybe right off of 20(this would be industrial) before a Paulding or West Cobb. Large Commercial companies need to be near the center of commerce, Atlanta.

And even if they did move, it wouldn't help the situation, it would just create more and more suburban sprawl. People would start buying farther west and farther north, they're even doing it now. It would be cheaper and still be a tolerable drive.

Buy1Get1Free · 02-15-2007, 08:14 AM

Wow,

I thought traffic here was really bad, but apparently everyone just adapts and gets-over the hour commutes to drive 10 miles.

I guess it's obvious that I am not from Atlanta. The "just deal with it" attitude hasn't sunken into me yet. I am dealing with it now, but I see it only getting worse. And if you see a problem about to explode, I would think common sense would say to try to start working on a solution. So that's why I wondered with might be coming down the pipe line since the areas are growing so rapidly and we can barely handle the traffic that we have.

Yes there are some back ways, but add an additional 1000+ cars to the roads and those back roads become swamped as well. Not to mention a lot of them are neighborhoods where kids could be out playing and end up getting hit by drivers in a hurry to get home. It happens.