Athens Traffic Volume Data

So I'm playing with traffic volume data for Athens-Clarke County. Here's a map I made of key data points, and an embed of the map (hopefully) below. The data points are just of key spots, not all of them available in the data. Click on a spot to see whether there was an increase from 2008 to 2014 in daily traffic for that location. Some are on campus, which is kinda useful, and I plucked out a few around town.



I actually have every year, 2008 to 2014, for 30 spots in ACC, all in a nice Excel file, but I can't easily stick that in this blog and, after all, no one probably cares. If you really want it, I can email it to ya. Oddly the local traffic data doesn't quite fit the state traffic data. I'll write more on that another day.

The biggest increase is 82.3 percent on Epps Bridge Road (near Old Epps Bridge Road, see graphic to left), no doubt driven by all the commercial activity out that way, just over the Oconee County line. In 2008 the daily volume was 2,414 vehicles, in 2014 the volume was 4,396. Not coincidentally, there's been a 15 percent decrease on Atlanta Highway near Jennings Mill Road.

The single biggest decrease is on Baldwin Street on the UGA campus, a 23.9 percent drop. There's probably a story there as well, one with a campus focus (i.e., R&B). It's long been a UGA mission to decrease traffic on Baldwin or even take over the city street and close it to through traffic. The city is never gonna let that happen as it's a major east-west corridor, one that happens to go right smack dab through campus. Off the top of my head, I believe it's the only street through campus that has had a pedestrian death (many years ago). It's a lot safer now.

Another big increase is Athena Drive just north of town (49.1 percent), perhaps because of all the commercial development, including a big new Kroger, in that area.