As metro Atlanta residents have begun to fret less about the economy, their concerns have increasingly turned to traffic.
Slightly more than a quarter of those polled in a recent survey of the 13-county area said transportation was the biggest problem facing the metro Atlanta region, followed by crime, the economy and public education. Other concerns, such as taxes, human services, race relations and public health, all accounted for less than 10 percent.
This is the third year that the Atlanta Regional Commission has released a “Metro Atlanta Speaks” survey. Besides providing a snapshot of how residents today perceive the area’s quality of life, it also provides a look back at how those perceptions have changed since 2013.
As the economy has recovered from a recession, that topic has gone from being top-of-mind for 24 percent of Atlanta residents in 2013 down to 15 percent.
“People are going back to work, which means they’re on the roads, so the transportation system is very important to them if they are trying to get to work,” said Mike Alexander, manager of the Research & Analytics Division of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Gwinnett and Cobb – core metro counties that are traffic choked and lack access to MARTA rail – had the highest percentage of survey respondents who ranked transportation as their chief concern at 37 percent, closely followed by Cherokee (33 percent). And those concerns have only grown since the survey began two years ago.
The survey findings jibe with what Chuck Warbington, who heads the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District, heard earlier this year after the self-taxing business group launched its own survey of county residents’ and workers’ attitudes toward future transportation needs.
“People feel trapped in Gwinnett,” and don’t feel leaders are doing anything about it, Warbington said.
Suburban business leaders and residents “want to see a vision put forth in regard to transit,” he said.
Ninety-one percent of people surveyed for Metro Atlanta Speaks felt that public transit was “very important” or at least “somewhat important” for the region.
Respondents also felt the best way to fix traffic was to expand public transit, by a margin of 44 percent compared to 31 percent who thought improving roads and highways was the better way to go.
Interestingly, Clayton County residents who voted by an overwhelming majority to join the MARTA system and began receiving regular bus service this spring had the biggest shift in priorities among the counties surveyed, Alexander said. Whereas in 2014, one in three Clayton County residents felt transportation was the area’s biggest problem, that number has now fallen to about 1 in 10.
The survey asked 26 questions of 5,200 residents who live in Butts, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale and Paulding counties.
To view the complete results, visit www.atlantaregional.com/metroatlspeaks.
Most important issues facing metro Atlanta
A survey of 13 counties for the Atlanta Regional Commission finds that transportation is the No. 1 concern by a wide margin.
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