Atlanta traffic looks very similar to its pre-pandemic hues and more people are in greater touch with the corridors they need to carry them to and fro. That means we are overdue for a reader mailbag, so I fished for some questions on social media and people slung out some good ones.
Each question has been edited for length and clarity.
“It seems that a lot of the small towns, Decatur and Snellville being the ones that I travel through the most, late at night their traffic lights all seem to turn red as you approach them.Then they go through the full signal cycle something that would never happen during the daytime, I’m talking sometimes waiting a full 90 seconds to wait for the light to go through to green.”
-Scott Jenkins via Facebook
Traffic signals in cities at night could use some tweaking. Having made the early morning drive to the WSB Radio and TV studios thousands of times, I never understood having to wait the full time at stoplight with no cars around. Aren’t the signals smart enough to sense how many cars are waiting at the line? Couldn’t cities leave traffic signals flashing red in the overnight hours, making them four-way stops?
I reached out to Gwinnett and DeKalb transportation officials for answers specifically about Decatur and Snellville. While I didn’t hear from any engineers directly, the Gwinnett County communications department offered some advice.
“In reference to your concerns, the county consistently reviews signal timing to improve mobility. The thing is, some signals have fixed times for different volumes of traffic,” Gwinnett media relations manager Deborah Tuff told the AJC and 95.5 WSB. “We break it up into four categories: morning peak, evening peak, other peak and off-peak times. Some signals can, in essence, sense when a car pulls up to an intersection that is not busy and change to accommodate that car. Sometimes the intersections get out of sync and sometimes the equipment that senses vehicles at intersections malfunctions,” Tuff explained.
“It could be a malfunction; it could be the intended timing. Either way, the driver should report the issue at the specific intersection or route so that our traffic engineers can be aware of the situation and make repairs and adjustments, as needed,” Gwinnett communications director Joe Sorenson said.
Tuff and Sorenson said that people can report Gwinnett traffic light issues at https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/web/gwinnett/Services/CitizenSelfService/ .
“The diverging diamond at I-285 east exit [to] Ashford Dunwoody north often gridlocks on weekends. Too many cars exit or can’t move past the backed up left-turn-onto Hammond lanes, which means the ITP northbound Ashford Dunwoody drivers (usually me) can’t get onto I-285 when my light is green.”
-Susan Oltman via Facebook
DDIs have been very useful in eliminating those dangerous left-turns from surface streets onto freeways and the delays that waiting to turn left causes. Ashford Dunwoody at I-285 was the first of those in Metro Atlanta, opening in 2012 and others have opened on Camp Creek Pkwy. at I-285, Jimmy Carter Blvd. at I-85, Pleasant Hill Rd. at I-85, Windy Hill Rd. at I-75, and Wade Green Rd. at I-75.
I went to a Perimeter Community Improvement District (PCID) lunch several years ago, where business leaders from the Perimeter Mall-Dunwoody-Sandy Springs area met to discuss traffic issues. One traffic engineer commented on the Ashford Dunwoody DDI with an unavoidable truth: making traffic on the interstate bridge move better with that DDI then shifts the delays up to the next regular intersection.
As Susan sees, that busy Hammond Drive traffic light on the south end of Perimeter Mall stacks up with that freed traffic from the I-285 interchange. If that light backs up, then the bridge backs up, and Susan and the like get stuck.
Since that area inevitably clogs up with mall traffic on the weekends, I’d recommend taking Harts Mill Rd. across to Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. and using Chamblee Dunwoody to access I-285. Of course, the couple of extra minutes needed to do that may not be shorter than simply waiting on Ashford Dunwoody.
“Approaching [the Downtown Connector/I-75/85] on I-75 south, can’t the lanes be painted with “I-85N” & “I-75S” around Howell Mill/Northside? Too much late lane -changing at that junction seems to cause a lot of congestion.”
-BettyLou Allen Lark via Facebook
That really is a dicey spot, especially for those ramping from Howell Mill/Northside onto I-75/southbound that need to get across to the left lanes to pick up that hairpin I-85/northbound ramp. GDOT has added those painted pavement shields on I-75/85/northbound in Midtown, so people know which lanes to be in when I-85 and I-75 split to the north. They also have these markings on I-75/85/southbound well before I-20, so thru traffic knows to stay to the left and I-20 traffic knows to be in the far-right or second-right lane, depending on the direction on I-20 they are going. Having some pavement shields early on I-75/southbound in Northwest Atlanta would be welcome and we will definitely pass this on to GDOT.
“I’ve seen this happen, but wasn’t sure if it was 100% legal or not. Can you legally turn left at a red light if it is a one-way street, with traffic moving to the left?”
-Jason Becknell via Facebook
This is a good question and, honestly, one in which I learned something in finding the answer. Lesley Potts chimed in on the Facebook comment thread with what I later found is the right answer. A left-turn is allowed at a red light onto a left-moving one-way street, as long as the driver is turning from the far-left lane and is themselves also on a one-way street. I had never considered that the first street also has to be one-way, but that kind of makes sense. Georgia is one of 38 states that allows this maneuver.
Thanks to Scott, BettyLou, Susan, and Jason for the great questions and to the public officials who gave some insight on traffic lights. If you have a traffic issue or question, please contact me anytime at the address below. And thanks very much for reading.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. He also hosts a traffic podcast with Smilin’ Mark McKay on wsbradio.com. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
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