If it feels like you've spent hours on end sitting in metro Atlanta traffic this year, you're right. Watermelons, emus and even a boat have snarled traffic leaving us idling in a sea of red brake lights for reportedly about 52 hours this year.
Unfortunately, the year was also plagued with numerous fatalities on our roads and highways. The good news is that the state is making moves to alleviate some of our most pressing transportation ails, providing reason to hope for safer and more efficient commuting in 2016.
But for now, reflect on the year’s good, bad and downright bizarre moments of commuting in metro Atlanta:
1. MARTA pursuing cell and Wi-Fi service in stations, tunnels: If all goes as planned, a six-month pilot project would start in January with three stations getting cell phone and Wi-Fi access in its stations and tunnels. [Read more]
2. Giant toll lane project ramps up — and up — on I-75 and I-575: The next solution to Atlanta's traffic is rising on massive columns of concrete and steel that march along Interstates 75 and 575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties. [Read more]
3. What's at the intersection of traffic and planning? Roundabouts: About 145 roundabouts have been built in Georgia since 2005. More than 110 are in various stages of design, and more than 20 are currently under construction. [Read more]
4. Some cities use interstates as cash registers: The AJC examined traffic fines paid last year in more than 500 cities and counties in Georgia and created a searchable database online that any driver may use to find ticket revenue in any jurisdiction in the state. [Read more]
5. Georgia slams brakes on electric cars: State legislators voted to eliminate a tax credit that last year helped catapult metro Atlanta to the highest U.S. market share for plug-in electric vehicles. The same bill will impose a $200 registration fee — the nation's highest — on noncommercial EVs. [Read more]
6. Plane slams into I-285, killing four: The crash prompted authorities to shut down the outer loop of the Perimeter at the crash site for three hours. The inner loop was closed for five hours. [Read more]
7. Two trucks crash, causing twice the traffic headaches: The tractor trailers crashed on I-285, toppled off a bridge and landed on Ga. 400 below. One of the trucks carried 8,000 gallons of fuel. [Read more]
8. A tragic death, a monumental traffic jam: Police closed all westbound lanes of I-285 near Roswell Road because a pedestrian was killed on the roadway. A monumental traffic jam quickly paralyzed much of northern metro Atlanta. [Read more]
9. MARTA Lost and Found has a closet of curiosities: The rectangular room of forgotten goods is not much larger than a walk-in closet, but is a curious mixture of the expected and the surprising. [Read more]
10. Weird things that have snarled Atlanta traffic: You never know what's going to disrupt Atlanta's traffic. [See photos]
