Roads took toll on driving habits

What a year.

When Atlantans last shook off their New Year’s hangovers and took to the roads, gas was flirting with $3 a gallon, but drivers didn’t seem to mind.

Atlanta had the second-worst traffic congestion in the nation, but high hopes for new transportation funding.

As the year comes to an end, the world has changed for many who thought they’d always be comfortably married to their SUVs. When the dust settles on 2008, many metro Atlantans will recall a profound change in their travel habits.

“It was certainly not your average year,” said state Department of Transportation spokesman Mark McKinnon.

Throughout the summer, drivers suffered through stalled traffic and snaking lines of cars jammed into single lanes as road projects such as the Downtown Connector repaving ruled the roadways.

In early fall, a gas shortage had drivers stalking fuel, following gas tankers down the street and jockeying for position at the few pumps that offered limited amounts of the high-priced petrol.

Four-dollar gas chased thousands into the seats of MARTA, car pools, local transit and express buses.

In November, just as Gov. Sonny Perdue was chopping budgets right and left, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters came to town and announced a whopping $110 million federal grant to transform an HOV lane on I-85 to a toll lane. State and local governments would have to scare up $37 million to help make it happen.

Those bombshells hit, spread shock —- and disappeared. At least for now.

So how much did they change Atlanta?

The road less traveled

The level of change in people’s driving was unprecedented. For the first time in history, for an entire year Americans drove less in each month than they had that month a year before. Georgians were out front in the trend.

Nobody can say for sure why, but gas prices and the economy are obvious motives, experts agree. A bad economy can make people think twice about driving around on a whim, even if their own job isn’t in peril.

Then, of course, came the price of a gallon of gas this summer.

“There was no more movies, no more nothing,” recalled Michael Buford, an electrician who said $3 and $4 gas made him cut back on driving he did to scout out possible jobs and destroyed his social travel. “That disappeared,” he said. “That was it.”

By December, gas prices well below $2 were luring people back to the highway.

“I would go anywhere now,” Buford said. And apparently others are thinking like Buford does.

On I-20 eastbound at Flat Shoals Road, where Buford stops to buy gas, DOT believes Interstate traffic has been down all year. In October 2008, DOT estimated that 8.6 percent fewer cars drove the highway every day than in October 2007. But in November, while rush hour traffic still fell slightly, overall traffic actually went up 0.4 percent.

David Altherr, a telecom order manager who lives in the area, said he believed the congestion was building up again.

“I feel it’s gotten worse recently,” Altherr said. “The past two months it’s gotten really bad.”

Transit bursting at the seams

Former drivers got around in new ways, in droves. For most months this year, MARTA sold thousands more rides than the year before. Local transit and express bus agencies saw big increases in ridership. Applications to metro Atlanta’s ride-share database more than doubled.

“I was stuck in traffic for two hours on I-85 yesterday,” Jessica Friedlander, 22, said as she headed into MARTA’s Five Points station for her commute home. That drive was a chance exception to her new MARTA commute, an exception she won’t be repeating soon. Bob Thibault, a project manager for Turner Broadcasting, switched to MARTA in May and said this summer that he thought he might go back to his car if gas prices fell. Interviewed again this month, he said he was still taking the train. “It’s surprising the heck out of me that I am,” he said.

Car pools, commuter rail: Change ahead

Another dramatic change to come out of this year of traffic wonders may be on Atlanta’s HOV lanes.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced a $110 million grant to put electronic tolls on HOV lanes in a portion of I-85 in Gwinnett County.

That move was seen as the proverbial foot in the door for Atlanta’s entire HOV system. The toll price would rise and fall with traffic congestion to keep the lane always free-flowing, and it would also be available to solo drivers. Peters’ staff said President-elect Barack Obama could confirm or revoke the grant.

The toll-lane idea didn’t sit well with Angie Donahoo, a legal secretary who commutes from Snellville to Buckhead.

She registered with the Clean Air Campaign, which rewards people who switch to greener commutes, and started car pooling several times a week “when gas prices were just crazy.” She’s still carpooling, she said, but won’t continue if she has to pay a toll to ride in the HOV lane.

For those trying to get off the road altogether, another high-level announcement offered hope. The proposed commuter rail line south to Lovejoy, long a deflated political football, got Gov. Perdue’s backing in June.

And maybe money

Hopes are high for Washington to send out billions of dollars in federal infrastructure spending as part of an economic stimulus package.

Georgia business leaders and local governments are once again preparing to ask the state General Assembly for the right to hold referendums for new transportation funding. They asked for the same thing in 2008, and it failed by three votes.

“We were severely disappointed on that day,” said Tad Leithead, who chairs a key transportation committee at the Atlanta Regional Commission. “But I think in retrospect it set a lot of things in motion” —- for 2009.

Mass transit advocates hope new money will fund not only roads but new commuter rail, streetcars and bus lines, transforming Atlanta.

Leithead points out that experts say traffic congestion is costing Atlanta new jobs. If we get money for new transportation projects, he said, in the short run that may mean orange traffic barrels clogging up the roads.

“But in the long run,” he said, “it means a commitment to preserve our quality of life.”

ATLANTA DRIVING: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

January

Atlantans begin the year with regular gas at $2.98 a gallon, and a second-place ranking in the country for the most congested urban area. For those counting on road projects to ease the epic congestion: Think again. New Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner has put the brakes on spending. A couple of contracts that were bid before she got there are still about to make downtown driving a misery.

March

Crews start closing lanes on weekends to repave the Downtown Connector, work to last all summer. Gas prices are rising.

April

Forbes.com, citing Atlanta’s limited rail network and other factors, ranks Atlanta’s commute the worst in the nation.

May

The 14th Street Bridge over the Downtown Connector, a major Midtown link, closes for construction for a year and a half.

June

Regular gas hits $4 a gallon on June 8. Gov. Sonny Perdue publicly backs a commuter rail line in south metro Atlanta.

July

Regular averages more than $4 a gallon. MARTA, suburban mass transit agencies report continuing surges in ridership. Applications to metro Atlanta’s ride-share registry, myridesmart.com, up 293 percent over July 2007.

September

A gas shortage had drivers stalking fuel, following gas tankers down the street and jockeying for position at the few pumps that offered limited amounts of the high-priced petrol.

October

Americans —- with Georgians helping drive the trend —- complete the first unbroken year in U.S. history of driving less than they had the year before, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

November

U.S. Transportation Secretary announces $110 million starter grant to build electronic tolls on Atlanta’s HOV lanes.

December

Average price of regular falls to four-year low.

UPS AND DOWNS

Metro Atlanta unleaded gas (2008)

Jan. 1: $2.98 per gallon

June 8: $4.00

Sept. 16: $4.11

Dec. 1: $1.70

Source: AAA Auto Club South

Applications to RideSmart HOV and transit registry (2008 over 2007)

January: up 264%

June: up 316%

October: up 31%

November: down 32%

Source: Atlanta Regional Commission

Ga. 400 toll traffic (2008 over 2007)

January: down 4,467 drivers

August: down 358,240 drivers

October: down 218,405 drivers

November: down 269,832 drivers (latest available month)

Source: SRTA

MARTA ridership (2008 over 2007)

January: down 0.2%

May: up 13.5%

September: up 13.3%

October: up 5.4% (latest available month)

Source: MARTA

I-20 daily traffic (Estimated eastbound at Flat Shoals Road, 2008 over 2007

January: down 2.8%

September: down 10.6%

October: down 8.6%

November: up 0.4%

Source: GDOT