Atlanta’s urban design has too often been driven by a “let the market build whatever it’s going to build and we’ll worry about mobility later” philosophy.
What usually results – given our framework of street design and parking requirements and more – is car-oriented development. When transit (along with bike and ped infrastructure) is overlaid on top of that type of development as an afterthought, it has to struggle for competitiveness and efficiency.
A transit system that’s weighted down with these struggles produces less-than-desirable service, which does no favors for the city.
This is what occurs to me after a long walk in the heat today. We passed by some large intown developments and lots of cars. But we passed too few fellow pedestrians on the sidewalks (except when we crossed the Beltline) and I don’t recall seeing a single bus.
Things are improving in many parts of the city, and we saw a ton of pedestrians last night on the Peachtree Street corridor in Midtown. But outside of some key spots, I’m not seeing as much progress as I’d like to.
All of our major developments need to be future-proof, meaning that they should be part of an overall design for a city that’s more accommodating to non-car trips at all levels. I personally believe that this design has to happen with zero parking required and with strict parking maximums near *all* transit lines, and with the streets redesigned to have their width (and curves and speeds and intersections) far less oriented towards cars.
