How 2 Inches of Snow Created a Traffic Nightmare in Atlanta

[octoberlib]

How much money do you set aside for snowstorms when they’re as infrequent as they are? Who will run the show—the city, the county, or the state? How will preparedness work? You could train everyone today, and then if the next storm hits in 2020, everyone you’ve trained might have moved on to different jobs, with Atlanta having a new mayor and Georgia having a new governor.

Regionalism here is hard. The population of this state has doubled in the past 40-45 years, and many of the older voters who control it still think of it as the way it was when they were growing up. The urban core of Atlanta is a minority participant in a state government controlled by rural and northern Atlanta exurban interests. The state government gives MARTA (Atlanta’s heavy rail transportation system) no money. There’s tough regional and racial history here which is both shameful and a part of the inheritance we all have by being a part of this region. Demographics are evolving quickly, but government moves more slowly. The city in which I live, Brookhaven, was incorporated in 2012. This is its first-ever snowstorm (again, 2 inches). It’s a fairly affluent, mostly white, urban small city. We were unprepared too.

The issue is that you have three layers of government—city, county, state—and none of them really trust the other. And why should they? Cobb County just “stole the Braves” from the city of Atlanta. Why would Atlanta cede transportation authority to a regional body when its history in dealing with the region/state has been to carve up Atlanta with highways and never embrace its transit system? Why would the region/state want to give more authority to Atlanta when many of the people in the region want nothing to do with the city of Atlanta unless it involves getting to work or a Braves game?

The region tried, in a very tough economy and political year (2012), to pass a comprehensive transportation bill, a T-SPLOST, funded by a sales tax. It wasn’t perfect, but it was an attempt to do something. The Sierra Club opposed it because it didn’t feature enough transit. The NAACP opposed it because it didn’t have enough contracts for minority businesses. The tea party opposed it because it was a tax. That’s politics in the 2010’s. You may snicker, but how good a job has any major city done with big transportation projects over the past 30 years?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/how-2-inches-of-snow-created-a-traffic-nightmare-in-atlanta/283434/

[Brainstormy]

1. I've lived here for 35 years

Two inches of snow has always caused a traffic nightmare. but it's rare enough that the bad dreams fade quickly. Of the region's many problems, this one doesn't even make my radar.

[rsdsharp]

2. I've lived in Iowa my entire life.

Typically a couple of inches of snow causes very few problems. There may be a few accidents, especially early in the season, as people move back into the winter driving mindset, but that's it.

Having said that, a couple of weeks ago, it started snowing at about 4:30 PM, here in Des Moines. It wasn't at all heavy (in total it was an inch or less), but it was very windy, and the streets hadn't been treated so it was very slippery. The slippery conditions, coupled with lowered visability made for a terrible afternoon commute. My drive is usually 15-20 minutes. It took me an hour to get home, and some people, trying to get from downtown Des Moines to the western suburbs (typically about a 20 minute drive) took 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Some people actually ran out of gas while stuck in traffic snarls. It was unreal for this area.

[starroute]

3. They could still have done more in the way of planning

I've been reading the blogs over at Weather Underground. A major part of the problem was that businesses and schools insisted that everybody come in as usual, then panicked and let them all out at the same time just before the snow struck. The result was major gridlock even before the snow really got started.

Left to their own devices, businesses aren't going to behave any differently. But government can. They could have declared a snow emergency, discouraged travel even before the storm hit, or at least made sure that school and business closings were staggered. Other cities in Georgia handled things way better than Atlanta did, and it doesn't necessarily take investing in snowplows and salt that may not be needed again for another decade.

[Phentex]

4. Thank you for getting it!

It was about planning, not the stupid snow plows.