Why is Holcomb Bridge the worst road in Metro Atlanta?

If you are a resident of Roswell, Alpharetta, or even Johns Creek, there is a phrase that you are absolutely petrified to see when driving anywhere in Roswell: Holcomb Bridge Road.

Why is that?  It's because the traffic and congestion on this road is by far the worst in nearly all of North Fulton.  Among the many, many reasons for this congestion (i.e. WAY too many lights...), the worst of them has to be the complete lack of coordination between the stop lights.  We are all forced to drive light-to-light catching every single red light along the way.  The worst part of it has to be when we look ahead down the road and see large sections of the road completely empty because we're all back, stuck at a red light.

When I say "coordination between the stop lights", I am referring to the concept that is, for some reason, foreign to the city planners of Roswell, Alpharetta, or any other town in the Greater Atlanta area (including Atlanta).  The idea is that the lights are timed so that once the first light turns green, the next stop light will turn green 10-15 seconds later, and then next light will turn green 10-15 seconds after that, etc.

Cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and even Los Angeles (WHAT?!) have coordination of stop lights to help traffic moving more smoothly during peak rush hour times.

Now, I do understand that people will say "Holcomb Bridge is two directions... how do you do that on a 2-direction road?"  The solution is: coordinate in the direction of rush hour traffic.  For Holcolm Bridge, coordination should happen in the direction of 400 in the morning and away from 400 in the afternoon and evening.

Lastly, and this is just perfect, the AJC had an article from March 2011 ("Turning Georgia's Traffic Signals Green") stating that the DOT was beginning an initiative to start coordinating lights throughout Metro-Atlanta and even named Holcomb Bridge Road specifically as one of the major arteries needing repair... Well, needless to say, I think there has been absolutely no action in those 2 years and things are just getting worse with the continual population growth in North Fulton County.

So, until Roswell or Alpharetta, figure out the most basic of road planning concepts (that even LOS ANGELES figured out), I'll continue to avoid Holcomb Bridge Road like the plague...  And I hope, for your sanity, that most of you do as well.

Comments

[Hunter]

SOOOOOO True!!!

[The Show]

Spot on analysis by Mr. Noto here!!!

[Rachel]

I totally agree. ..it irks me when one light turns green, you drive and one block later the light is red!

[anonymous]

And don't forget the lack of connections across the river that make people use it to get from Atlanta & Dunwood to many points north, east and west including Gwinnet and Cobb counties.

[Laura]

Another issue with getting across the river on Roswell Rd. is that they turned the left turn lane from Roswell Rd. onto Azalea into an arrow only turn. This is good because there are a lot of accidents at that intersection. But it also now causes traffic to back way up on Roswell Rd. into Sandy Springs because the too short turn lane blocks the 2nd lane of traffic from continuing into Roswell. I've seen traffic backed up all the way to Northridge because of this change.

[Daniel Noto]

"Anonymous" and Laura-

Thanks so much for reading and contributing to the discussion. You're both very right about the "river issue". This is a situation that I, frankly, am shocked to see exists. I moved to Atlanta just 1 1/2 years ago and am completely flabbergasted that the cities of Roswell, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody can't get together and figure out ways to build at least 2-3 additional crossings to alleviate the 400/Holcomb Bridge congestion.

Thanks again and stay tuned for more article about what we face on the roads...

Daniel Noto

[Rob]

The cities of Roswell, Sandy Springs and Alpharetta have been actively working on adaptive signal control for the past several years.

SR 9 ATMS is already under construction and should be on-line early next year.
SR 140/SR 92 ATMS construction should be starting later this summer.


The biggest difference between cities that have coordinated systems and Roswell is that Roswell is not on a N/S - E/W grid. This makes coordination much more difficult and the gains in efficiency to the system are not as great.

"Fixing the signal timing" is not going to cause the peak congestion on Holcomb Bridge (70,000 cars a day and climbing) to go away.



New Vehicle Bridge over the Chattahoochee River - Not going to happen between 400 and Johnson Ferry. SS was approached several years ago and they are not interested. One project we ARE working on though is a new pedestrian/bicycle pedestrian parallel to SR 9 over the River.

[Daniel Noto]

Rob-

Thanks for reading and contributing.

Regarding the coordinated timing of the lights, I don't feel that just because there isn't a grid, that the system can't be fixed. Coordinating the lights in the direction of the traffic (towards 400 in the morning and away from it in the afternoon) should be the goal of any traffic system implemented in Roswell.

I agree that this won't alleviate the congestion... I do feel it's an opportunity (that only requires computer programming with very little infrastructure upgrades) that can help ease the pain.

Lastly, regarding the bridges over the river, what was Sandy Springs' issue for not agreeing to a new bridge? Are they really concerned that the additional traffic will negatively impact their city? Roswell road (SR-9) runs straight through their city and is so congested because of those lack of alternates.

The pedestrian/bicycle bridge, while nice for the weekends, really does absolutely nothing for those of us forced to commute from North Fulton to Buckhead and points South.

The next question, I suppose, is how to get Sandy Springs to change their minds?

Thanks-

Daniel Noto

[Rob]

(my opinions)

Holcomb Bridge Road will never be "fixed". Can it be improved? Absolutely... and we're working on that in several ways. GDOT has pumped in some funding over the past few years for their worst arterials in the Metro Area (HBR being one) and believe it or not, the timing today is MUCH better than it was several years ago. Once ATMS comes on line, the primary beneficiary of time savings will be cars travelling between the AM and PM rush. Signal timing only goes so far when it comes to the heavy AM/PM rush.

New Bridge: Good luck. There was a Comprehensive Planning study for the 5 cities completed several years ago. During that study, the idea of a new bridge was proposed and it went absolutely nowhere. Finding a location where both cities would support the idea would be difficult.

From a pure transportation network perspective, the logical location would be connecting Eves Road in Roswell to Spalding Drive in SS. Anything west of SR 9 would be difficult, dealing with Morgan Falls and the National Park.

[foundonreddit]

Besides coordinating lights school buses should be forced to pull into apt complexes to pick up kids instead of loading 80 kids directly on Holcomb bridge road at 710 am each morning rush hour. That kills traffic on Holcomb.

[Daniel Noto]

"Foundonreddit", that is a great comment. I'm shocked that the buses are allowed to pick up on Mansell or Holcomb Bridge. Just an awful concept that no one thought about (I don't know how though).

Rob, regarding the lack of a bridge between 400 and Johnson Ferry (which I refuse to let die), you mentioned that there was no location that both cities agreed upon. What possible location would Roswell have a problem with?! ANY location across the river should be acceptable to Roswell if Sandy Springs accepted it as well.