Study: Add Affordable Housing To Reduce Buckhead Congestion
Want to reduce Buckhead traffic? Then the submarket, one of the wealthiest in all of Metro Atlanta, needs to add 12,000 more housing units.
That is the conclusion of a recent Livable Buckhead study on solutions to Buckhead's congestion issues, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. The study, conducted by New York-based consultants HR&A Advisors on behalf of the nonprofit community development organization, found more housing needs to be built in Buckhead.
Six thousand of the 12,000 units researchers say the neighborhood needs should be affordable for renters who can pay no more than $1,250/month as a way to alleviate the slammed morning and afternoon commutes, especially along Peachtree, Piedmont, Lenox and Roswell roads.
“Having up to 12,000 households no longer on the roads may not be the entire solution to Buckhead’s traffic problems, but it’s a good start,” HR&A principal Alex Stokes told the ABC.
Livable Buckhead is among the organizations attempting to find solutions to the submarket's worsening traffic conditions. The number of workers in Buckhead has ballooned from 87,300 in 2010 to nearly 125,000 in 2016, according to a 2016 Arcadis study. The study found that 98% of those workers live elsewhere.
“Most traffic congestion is caused by employment," Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook told Bisnow last year.
There are a number of solutions in play to help alleviate congestion, like new turning lanes, pedestrian paths, synchronized traffic lights and reduced and consistent parking ratios along the Peachtree Road corridor.
