Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Atlanta

Courtney Cobbs Comments on the CTA

By John Greenfield | Feb 12, 2015 | 3 Comments

[This piece originally ran in Checkerboard City, John’s column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.] Social worker and transit fan Courtney Cobbs moved to our city from Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2013, partly because she wanted to be able to live car-free. She has posted some thought-provoking comments on Streetsblog Chicago […]

How Clayton County Turned Its Zero-Transit Nightmare Around

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 7, 2014 | No Comments

Whether Tuesday’s election left you feeling elated or devastated, there’s one happy story we can all rejoice in: Clayton County, Georgia, will finally get transit service. For 10 years the county had a skeletal bus system with three routes, known as C-TRAN, which was then completely dismantled about four years ago. Having gotten its jump-start with federal […]

A New Bike Network Takes Shape, and Atlantans Turn Out in Droves

By Michael Andersen | Oct 16, 2014 | No Comments

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. The capital of the New South is working on its latest “highway” network. This one is going to be a lot quieter. The massive Beltline trail and an impressive grid of protected […]

Wowza: Scale Maps of Barcelona and Atlanta Show the Waste of Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 3, 2014 | No Comments

This graphic was created by Alain Bertaud, a senior researcher at NYU’s Stern Urbanization Project. He was formerly principal urban planner for the World Bank. Part of his work has focused on comparing densities of world cities. In this stunning comparison of metro Atlanta and Barcelona, you can see that the two regions have almost […]

Re-imagining Parking Spaces as Micro-Apartments

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 14, 2014 | No Comments

Can parking spaces get a second life? A student project in Atlanta helps demonstrate the possibilities in every stall. Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design created three “SCADpads:” 135-square-foot micro-apartments designed to fit in the space defined by a single parking spot. Three prototypes for these modular homes, which cost $40-$60,000 to […]

The Whole City of Florence Could Fit Inside an Atlanta Interchange

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 13, 2014 | No Comments

It’s incredible how much we’ve given up in the United States all so we can travel slightly faster by car. The above graphic, revived by Lloyd Alter at Network blog Treehugger this week from an old blog post by author Steve Mouzon, really makes you stop and think. On the left is Florence, Italy — a global treasure. On the […]

Why Atlanta’s Better Off Without Turner Field

By Angie Schmitt | May 9, 2014 | No Comments

When the Braves announced they were leaving Atlanta for suburban Cobb County, it was interpreted in some quarters as a blow to the city, another symptom of the city’s notorious suburban sprawl. But it looks like Atlanta might come out of this thing smelling like a field of roses. Not only did the city avoid […]

Parking Madness: Detroit vs. Atlanta

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 20, 2014 | No Comments

Yesterday, Chicago’s United Center parking lots bested Denver’s Court Place parking crater in the first match-up of Parking Madness 2014. Today, two heavyweights are facing off: It’s the motor city versus sprawl city in a bare-knuckle brawl of car infrastructure run amok. Without further ado, here’s the Detroit entry. Warning: This could get ugly. This […]

Sunday’s LSD Crisis Highlighted Value of Chicago’s Diverse Tranpo Network

By John Greenfield | Mar 17, 2014 | 18 Comments

Yesterday’s nine-hour standoff between police and an alleged murderer, which shut down North Lake Shore Drive and created Carmageddon on nearby surface streets, highlighted why Chicago is fortunate to have multiple transportation options. Around 12:30 p.m., officers began chasing accused killer Joseph Andrew Felton Jr., 43, in his car from south-suburban Harvey, through the South […]

Georgia Removes Tolls, Invites 11,000 More Drivers to Clog GA 400 Each Day

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 29, 2013 | No Comments

Why raise desperately needed transportation funds for a broke region when you could let people drive for free? In Georgia, the state has made up its mind: The DOT will pay $4.5 million to tear down tolls on GA 400 — and forfeit the $21 million a year the tolls brought in. It costs just […]