Traffic to downtown Atlanta lags behind prepandemic levels
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Traffic congestion is picking up in metro Atlanta, but trips to downtown are still below the levels seen during early 2020, before Covid forced many of us out of the office and onto Zoom.
Driving the news: Trips to downtown Atlanta this fall were 16% below their prepandemic levels, according to new data from INRIX, a mobility research firm.
Why it matters: A strong metro region needs a strong core, and there’s a big question mark on how downtown will evolve — and how we all will move around the metro — in a post-pandemic world.
Details: When it comes to trips downtown, Atlanta fared better than tech hubs San Francisco (-49%), Seattle (-36%) and Washington, D.C. (-38%), where many government, lobbying and contractor jobs moved remote, INRIX says. The study includes trips to downtown for sporting events and shows and restaurants.
- Roughly 15% of the Downtown submarket's office space is vacant, which is less than vacancy rates in Midtown and Buckhead, according to research firm Colliers.
Despite the gridlock you sat through during the year, congestion in metro Atlanta was still 36% below pre-pandemic levels.