Dunwoody Gets A Roundabout

A constituent in District 1 has been attempting to work with the City to address some quality of life issues directly affecting his home and family. Now this is not your ordinary whiner. That would be TOD. In fact, this bloke was one of the starry-eyed supporters of city-hood. A card carrying member of Dunwoody Yes! and Citizens for Dunwoody, participating on at least one of the pre-city-hood Task Forces. How's that for more Dunwoody than you?

A recent take-to-task issue has been the lack of enforcement of a no-truck-zone on Chamblee-Dunwoody from Roberts to Spalding. While this has been a no-truck-zone for some time, pre-dating the City, thru-trucks have sped thru unmolested as the City refused to address the situation.

Until now.

Last week the City "fixed" the problem by removing the northbound truck restrictions from that stretch of Chamblee-Dunwoody which lies entirely in the City and has imposed new, never before northbound truck restrictions on Roberts between Chamblee-Dunwoody and Spalding, which is partially in the City. This is not in the transportation plan. This was done without notice and without opportunity for public comment. This is about much more than silencing a complainer nonetheless this constituent's case is rendered moot because the offending signage has been relocated.

What Dunwoody has really done is route truck traffic in a loop. North on C-D, South on Roberts with the loop closed at the north via Spalding. And this is just the first, baby step. The full plan calls for conversion of these sections of Roberts and Chamblee-Dunwoody to one-way for all traffic creating a huge roundabout as shown in this map.

Inconvenience to residents is mitigated by the two cut-throughs (shown in red) with the Dunwoody Knoll route improved by the removal of the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. The right of way reclaimed will be re-purposed to protected bike lanes similar to those cropping up across the nation.

Note that only cyclists will enjoy bi-directional connectivity once the planned changes are completed. While there has been some discussion around sidewalk widening and other improvements that part of the plan has not been finalized as Staff remains unconvinced there is sufficient pedestrian traffic.

A Christmas Wish

Speeding is a problem throughout Dunwoody and one of the worst routes is North Peachtree threading thru quiet but hilly residential areas and sporting a 25 MPH speed limit along a majority of the route. It should come as no surprise that a significant number of cut thru drivers (and some locals) exceed the limit by more than 10 MPH. Officials seem to love absolutes but 10 MPH over in a residential 25 MPH zone is significantly worse than 10 over on 45 MPH Ashford Dunwoody.

Don't expect enforcement to play a role in addressing this problem. Not only is DPD primarily Perimeter Mall Cops and unless or until someone's children lose playing North Peachtree Frogger we'll not see any enforcement. Even if we do it will be short lived serving primarily as a DPD PR stunt. This is despite a ballooning budget that not only outpaces inflation but even the rates of increase of college educations.

But we have a chance to make lemonade and quite a bit of it as we have two lemons. Whilst the DPD is standing Perimeter Defense we've been assaulted by Torpy's Spandex Army. These folks have waged a campaign with the kind of disregard for others and religious fervor one associates with ISIL and until recently have met with token opposition at best though Buckhead recently dispelled their invincibility. And Dunwoody is blessed with many riders who, as Torpy has observed, intend to self-enforce their rights to the road forcing auto traffic to queue up and slow to the pedaller's speed. No matter how slow that might be.

And there is our solution. While it is conceivable that some fit Lance-a-lots might top 25 on some downhill stretches for the most part hitting 25 will be uncommon. Combine this with the militantly arrogant, almost gleeful, rolling traffic obstruction and we have our solution to drivers speeding in the area.

The City need only make one change to score a win-win-win.

We need to change our paving plan to incorporate bicycle riders and not just bicycle lanes which to date have been totally unrelated. We need to ink an IGA between the City of Dunwoody and the fascist Bicycle State in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs (BSDSS) that requires consistent routing and properly timed bike-ride/traffic-calming crits before we pave or even stripe-out another foot of bicycle lane.

When this operational plan is in place we'll see slower traffic in a residential area, undisturbed Police operations and the BSDSS will get to exercise their legs and their rights in a worthy cause.

Not Done. Not Woody.

Trains, Teams And Automobiles

[...]
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.

Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
[...]

It is silly season and folks blessed with an eye, half a brain and the sense god gave a pigeon to sit on a statue are being twirled around by traffic related nonsense like a lawn chair in a tornado.

The first bucket of nonsense comes from the Clowns To The Left Of Us and is all about trains. Or lack thereof. In particular is the concern from the ITP-er's who pontificate that while god is good them there trains is great. They're attempting to leverage the Braves move to Snob County to push for a train from Arts Center to 75/285. Not just any train--a MARTA train. Their rather twisted logic seems to be "if you get the Braves then you must become MARTA-fied." Something is going to break when we straighten out that little pretzel of logic.

See these same train-vangelists had not a care in the world that there was no train service to Turner Field. No more than they cared that Turner Field was located in a crime-ridden armpit of the City. But now that the nasty ole ballpark is moving they are all excited about another live/work/play ground just like Atlantic Station. And if you've been paying attention to the crime around Atlantic Station you can be pretty sure they have everything they need to pull it off.

The other tidbit otherwise known as fact is just where the folks buying Braves tickets live, work and consequently will be coming from. What they prefer to ignore and wish you would as well is the inconvenient truth that based on ticket sales these have never been the Atlanta Braves they've always been the suburb's Braves. So a MARTA train to the new stadium would just be a train from nowhere unused by the Cracker Jackin' crowd. What it would do is maintain job access for current stadium workers as all things ITP are about jobs programs for protected connected minorities.

They also ignore the fact that the Braves want a major upgrade in employees as well as environment. And Braves fan base are dropping a pretty penny taking the family to see the game and they just might make a day of it. When you're going to drop a couple hundred on the game why not take the day off and have a mini staycation? Because that's not what MARTA's for?

But we're also sandwiched between the Jokers On The Right who control state government and have been quite pissy of late because the electorate held them to their word forcing them to end the 400 toll and quit raiding the funds for their pet projects.

We've heard these Chicken Littles lament the loss of jobs though in fact all they really care about is the loss of money they can spend. Politicians and bureaucrats. Predictable. Pathetic.

They've co-opted the media who have given free ink to all things disastrous on the newly liberated section of road. We're told there will suddenly be twenty to thirty percent more cars on that slice of paved paradise than a mere week ago--as if by magic.

And magic it is.

We're not told where these cars come from. Do they think that Bubba and Essie up in Alpharetta will start thinking they should be partying in Butthead because it doesn't even cost that gosh darned dollar to get there anymore? Really Bert? REALLY?

No. In fact these cars are going to come from surface streets and "alternative routes". You know the ones racing thru your neighborhood.

And even if there are twenty or thirty percent more vehicles then guess what? We can handle it. Want to know why? Because we don't have to stop at the damn toll booth that's why.

At the end of the day the Braves get new digs in much upgraded surroundings. The fans get something to do before and after the game other than scurry around in fear of their lives. MARTA gets a chance to get their act together swallowing what they've already bitten off before they try to choke down any more. Folks on 400 get a better cheaper commute having paid in full and then some for the road that gets them there. And taxpayers get a few more employees off the public payroll no matter how indirect that currently is.

Everyone wins except those who have been stealing from our wallets and those a bit overinfatuated with all things ITP.

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.

Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,
Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you.

Transportation Modes

We seem all wrapped up in roads these days and we always come around to the question of "how do we get cars off the roads and get pedestrians and bikers on them?" yet we never question the underlying assumptions: pedestrians good; bikes better; cars bad. Unfortunately Dunwoody has more than its fair share of Luddites who cannot get past the antiquated idea that roads are purpose-built for cars and other motorized vehicles. To them it seems obvious, but those wanting to take their fair share of the asphalt away from cars see things differently.

Perhaps it would facilitate discussion if we could properly characterize transportation as one of two categories: destination transportation and recreational transportation.

Destination transportation is that antiquated fossil-fueled ICE driven modality, emphasizing effectiveness and utility over more important things like "it's good for you". Basically, destination transportation means automobiles. Parking. Commerce. Getting there, getting it done, getting back.

Recreation transportation is about the journey. Scenery. Fresh air. People contact. Basically, recreation transportation means "human powered". Walking, running, and biking. Not swimming yet, but plans are afoot to install a network of swimming canals throughout the 'Hood. Rumor has it a former mayor has a plan to freeze the canals so we can ice skate to and through the Village, much like what is done in Ottawa. Except their water just freezes.

The simple fact is we're not about to see grocery shoppers pedal up to Publix and Fred and Ethel are not going to waddle on over to Hickory House. And back. Weather, hills, and yes, automobile traffic make this less than unlikely. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with recreational walking and biking but let's be honest, only a very small percentage of human powered locomotion is for anything but recreation (while it is a stretch, we're considering exercise "fun").

The real question we need to address is just how much of our taxes (and yes, grants and other OPM) do we want to spend on recreation transportation and what are we willing to sacrifice with regards to destination transportation?

Tongue Freed From Cheek

It seems quite a waste to spend $1136/ft on the Mt. Vernon to Chamblee-Dunwoody stretch of Dunwoody Parkway. Not only is this pricey, it doesn't solve any real problems. In an upcoming diatribe we'll rant about the differences between destination transportation and recreation transportation, but for now let's look at the Village and see what we can do.

First let's observe some sanity rules and objectives:

• Roads at or under a 25MPH limit will have not dedicated bike lanes--you'll share the road and if you cannot enforce a speed limit or share the road at these speeds there are deeper problems that no amount of pavement or striping will fix.
• The entire run of Dunwoody Parkway should be at or under 25MPH.
• Transportation IN the Village is not primarily for the benefit of those trying to get THROUGH the Village. We have through ways. Use them.
• Passive speed control measures should be used as we're not likely to see active measures in force.
• Some existing trees warrant saving but many do not and neither have a constitutional right to equal treatment or equal outcomes. Some will die, others will be planted.
• We need to address more than just the needs of special interests, be they cut-through drivers in a hurry to get where ever or bike riders in a hurry to get back where they started. 

Based on the annotated map below let's look at what we could do to improve Life In The Village.

Tackling the 800 pound gorilla first the contentious part of the Parkway (shown above in green) would be reconfigured. Where possible trash trees (think Bradford Pear) in the median and those medians will be removed. Crepe myrtles are readily sacrificed as well. In the areas with no median the outer lane will become a small linear park with wide sidewalks and plantings including non-trash shade trees. You have one half the width of the median and the width of one traffic lane to work with on each side. In areas where there are high value, high quality trees in the median these will be preserved--there are a few. This will create traffic calming structures known as "center island narrowing" where lanes diverge around these retained medians. This is being used effectively on a similar road on at least one corporate campus in the area.

Now let's look at the oft neglected portion of Dunwoody Parkway stretching from Chamble Dunwoody down to the Publix center, past Car Repair Central and over to Restaurant Row ending at the four way behind Hickory House (shown in blue above). This certainly needs re-paving and curb improvements. Either the storm drain problem at the bottom of hill must be fixed or the area declared a federally protected wetland. This little stretch of road should not be costly to bring up to par with the rest of the Parkway, but it is important to the overall plan as will be shown shortly.

Then there are also some important additions (shown in red above). First, a round-about (the red circle) which is not only euro-chic but appropriately located near Dunwoody's British pub, and Alison's, whose proprietor sports a British accent, and D'Vine Wine bar, purveyors of wine from across Europe. Another critical component of the overall plan is an extension of the Parkway behind Moondog and dead-ending on Nandina after a dog-leg to the east. This route is already paved, but not as part of the Parkway and rights of way would need to be acquired and the roadway brought up to Dunwoody Parkway standards. Another added element is raised pedestrian crosswalks at key locations around the Parkway (shown as red squares) which not only provide clearly marked crossings for pedestrians but offer a similar alert for drivers. As a traffic calming measure they complement the center islands. There are other additions and changes, but these are largely minor, like fixing the Fresh Market entrance at the Chevron station which is awkwardly angled. A Citizens' Committee can handle these details.

And what do we get for all this trouble? Glad you asked.

• These improvements allow us to ban all left turns from shopping center parking lots on Chamblee Dunwoody. This is long overdue and eliminates one source of accidents that waste our police budget.
• Nandina can be made one-way south. Folks leaving Moondog will be able to turn right on Nandina, right on the Parkway to the round-about and have their choice of traffic lights to head their merry way. Something may catch their eye and they just might pick up a little something extra. 
• Shoppers can move with relative ease through all areas of the Village without the current interference of commuter traffic.
• The City will get the consistent "look and feel" some seem to want.

Most importantly we get past the current dog fight created by focusing only on what some silly grant covers.

Parkway Redux

Reworking Dunwoody Parkway was part of the Dunwoody Master Plan attacked with vigor and fueled by the enthusiasm of referendum victory. That was then, this is now. And now, there will be (re)debate of the plan and its merits. We can learn a few things from this.

First, plans are nothing more than just that. Some lines on a drawing and words on a page with little or no relationship to what will be done, when it will be done or what it will cost. Any resemblance between plan and execution is a rare coincidence.

The other thing we can learn is the destructive impact of greed, in this case known as "matching funds" or "leverage". The belief (or even the reality) that the "planners" can dip into other people's money generally inflates the plan well beyond what is needed. Often we wind up with a plan so grand that it is offensive to sensible folks.

This seems to have happened with the Parkway to Nowhere. The grand plan requires ripping everything up, pavement, median and trees so as to reconfigure to a median-less two-lane with sidewalks and bike lanes. This is the "Cadillac" plan. A simpler, cheaper, but equally effective transformation would include conversion of the outside lanes into raised sidewalks and bike lanes, add raised pedestrian crossings, repave the center lanes, retain the median with its trees and double-lanes only at each end.

This probably is not expensive enough to warrant matching funds making it a non-starter for a modern city government.

Urgent Care Needed

Really?

Now that all the TSPLOST whining has degenerated into whimpering it seems reasonable to ask a simple question:

What made this a crisis?

Anyone who's lived in the metro region for more than five years knows a few things. Traffic here is pretty bad. You're one wreck away from an extra hour tacked on to a thirty minute commute. Most folks "ain't from around here" and where they're from they send their worst first. MARTA sucks. Always has, always will. Local politicians are as corrupt as they come and are second only to their greedy business cronies. Hartsfield[1] serves as proof that power corrupts and that with adequate cashflow even corruption can appear to work. Sometimes.

What we don't know is how a chronic condition, one we had learned to live with, one that had gone into a very limited remission suddenly became critical. Why 2012? Why not 2006, ten years after the Olympics when the shine had gone all patina? Why not Y2K? If you believe the loudmouth who was pumping the TSPLOST nothing has been done on GA400 and I-285 since 1972, so why not the mid-eighties?

The answer is simple and unsurprising. The Feds are cutting back on the money they will dole out to Atlanta to prop up the Georgia DOT and other local interests. And we've become addicted to Fed Funding. Intentionally. And it's not like we have used these funds wisely. We've sqandered it to keep gasoline taxes artificially low, avoid applying impact fees to address the costs associated with development and hand out tax abatements like candy. That kind of hedonistic, drug addled thinking has put us in such a precarious position that the tiniest reduction in Fed Funds pushes us from chronic but manageable to critical, near death.




[1] @TOD we've not tacked on the "Jackson" as we're not sure whether that is about Jesse, Maynard, or Michael.

Set My MARTA Free!

Here is a radical idea that has been floating around section 8 housing for a quite a few years now:

make MARTA train and bus services totally free to anyone. 

Turns out the idea has some merit if tackled properly.

Given we're about to engage in a TSPLOST Train Wreck that primarily serves a few already rich developers perhaps establishing a comprehensive region wide "No Fare" public transportation system may not be so silly after all. Is it really any sillier than the "Train to Lovejoy", a revival of the archaic concept of streetcars or the Atlanta beltline project?

This warrants some serious consideration.

Suppose travelers to Atlanta could get off a plane, pick up their bags and hop right on the train without buying a breeze card, without the "how do you swipe this card" delay, and without negotiating baggage through those goofy swinging gates. That would set Atlanta ahead and above all major passenger hubs in the world in both convenience and service.

To make this work several important things must happen.

The State must step up to the plate with a funding mechanism that leverages regional assets to build out a world class system. After all, this is the same region that is being lobbied to mindlessly vote for the TSPLOST for a patchwork of studies that will lead nowhere but to more taxes. Grow up--get real. It's time for the legislature to put some "big boy" pants on and state for the record that Atlanta regional transportation is important to the entire state. Just like the port at Savannah or an auto plant in west Georgia.

MARTA must go away. And GRTA. And the Cobb and the Gwinnett and the Clayton bus systems.

Expanding MARTA's role will not work as MARTA suffers from a well-deserved, region-wide negative brand image. When authorizing MARTA, the state wisely restricted the budget to a fifty-fifty split between operations and capital expenditures, suspecting that MARTA would become pretty much what it is today. Since then MARTA has played fast and loose with the rules (e.g., selling capital equipment and leasing it back) to divert funds to operations justifying the original wariness of the State.

It is also viewed, again with reasonable justification, as a jobs program for a particular demographic and we are not likely to see a top MARTA official that does not meet that profile.

This has had an expected and very tangible impact on service. While MARTA may attract the best available from an artificially small selection, they do not seek the best overall talent. This has created a sense of entitlement amongst the employees who, knowing they will not be fired, see no reason to make on-time service Job One. Or Job NONE for that matter. It has become so bad that it is no longer unusual for the first train leaving the North Springs station to leave late! And MARTA is not alone--over the years we have witnessed the (mis)management of the Atlanta Airport which operates under the same model. We won't even start with the school systems.

We must have a single, region wide agency responsible for all transportation in the area. There must be a single throat to choke, a single agency to manage, a single agency to be held accountable. And "all transportation"  includes the 800 lb gorilla, the Atlanta Airport, as well as other, often overlooked airports like PDK (which is the second busiest in the state). This agency must also be responsible for all surface transportation in the region. If there are to be tolls, if the existing tolls are to continue, it would be the responsibility of this agency to establish and maintain these systems. If "the gulch" is to ever be used as a multi-modal transportation hub, this agency will make it happen. If "Rubber Rail" with dedicated lanes comes to the area, it will be directly because of the efforts of this agency. 

Finally, this agency must represent and respect the needs of the entire region, not just one area and not just a select few. The balkanization that characterizes and paralyzes the Atlanta metro area must be torn down. Transparency and fiduciary responsibility must be foundational. Service must be paramount. There is no reason to believe that our transportation systems cannot be run as efficiently as those in Japan or Europe. There is no reason to accept less.