The next Atlanta traffic fight is over the curb
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Some of Atlanta's most contested real estate at the moment might just be the curb.
Why it matters: Delivery vans, package trucks and food delivery drivers turning on their hazards and creating gridlock on major streets has become one of the top resident and business complaints, elected officials and civic groups tell Axios.
- The congestion raises a complex question: Who gets to use a limited stretch of curb, when and for what purpose?
Catch up quick: More people are living in Atlanta's denser neighborhoods and increasingly, they're having groceries, takeout, Amazon orders and everything else delivered to their front doors.
- The delivery vehicles that don't park in official loading zones at buildings use the street because there's often nowhere else — or nowhere the driver thinks is convenient — to stop.
The big picture: Blocked lanes often require other drivers, bicyclists and buses to weave around stopped vehicles, creating safety risks.
State of play: In Midtown, a pattern has developed, Dan Hourigan, the transportation and sustainability director of the Midtown Alliance, tells Axios.
- Drivers know that stopping on the side of the street is illegal. However, they see everybody else doing it without getting ticketed, so they do it too.
- The behavior normalizes and the problem compounds, creating what Hourigan likened to a kind of "Wild West:" one delivery vehicle quickly becomes several because drivers know they're unlikely to be ticketed.
The big picture: Transportation planners say Atlanta will likely have to start treating the curb as infrastructure instead of simply a place to park.
- That includes reserving curbs for deliveries during specific times of the day, converting street spaces to loading zones, or including them in new street designs, like the Midtown Alliance's recent Juniper Street overhaul.
(Un)fun facts: Georgia law does not allow automated enforcement of curb violations like stopping or standing in a travel lane, Hourigan says. Lawmakers are unlikely to pick up the politically fraught issue anytime soon.
- A city weight limit prohibits many delivery vehicles from qualifying for the city's temporary commercial parking permit, Atlanta City Council Member Kelsea Bond, who represents parts of Midtown, tells Axios.
What's next: The Atlanta Department of Transportation tells Axios it is working with Atlanta police to increase enforcement and using data to develop "more dynamic management strategies."