In 1999, Governor Roy Barnes created the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, a major step forward in helping the Atlanta region address its traffic woes and grow differently. But the challenges that confront the region are not only those of relieving traffic congestion and improving air quality, but also of remedying the factors that produce explosive growth in some parts of the region and very little growth in others.
This report documents these growth patterns and argues that if Atlanta is to move beyond sprawl, it must connect the consequences of too much growth on the northern side of the region and too little growth on the southern portions and embrace a wide range of solutions that address the problems faced by both sides of the region.