Survey: Shorter commute is main reason for moving By ariel hart
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| Survey: Shorter commute is main reason for moving
By ARIEL HART The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 08/24/07 It wasn't the schools. It wasn't the lousy boss. It wasn't even nearness to family or size of the house. In a new survey of 4,000 metro Atlantans, of those who changed residences or jobs last year, the top reason was the commute. Three-quarters of people who moved or changed jobs said ease of commuting was equal to or more important than other factors in the decision to make the change. That tracks for Richard Kim, a 30-year-old loan processor who said he moved from Marietta in 2002, when he was commuting to school in Dunwoody. He said he decided to move inside the Perimeter even before he knew where he would be working because he figured it would be an easier commute. "I moved to Buckhead, so no matter where I go to work, it's against traffic," he said. He now works in Norcross, and as he predicted, he still has a reverse commute. "It's like no traffic or a lot less traffic, a lot less," he said. "I'm less frustrated at work. It made a huge difference." Metro Atlanta researchers have spent years charting surging traffic congestion, a decline in individual driving distances and the move toward live-work-play centers. Anecdotal evidence and common sense suggested those trends were linked, that people were moving closer to work or working closer to home to avoid traffic. But it was hard to know for sure, cautioned experts like Marvin Woodward at the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which publishes an annual report showing a steady plunge in the number of miles the average licensed driver here has driven since 1998. Now, they have a study and they know. Researchers caution that survey results always depend on how you slice the numbers. Nationwide, the little evidence available tends to show other factors than commute time are more important, said Alan Pisarski, author of the nation's pre-eminent commuting report. But combining movers and job-changers in one survey showed how Atlantans' trip to work is spurring some of the most fundamental and disruptive decisions in their lives. In addition, Pisarski said, "I think one of the things it says, and one of the reasons it's so dramatically different from the rest of the country, is maybe that Atlanta's congestion is dramatically different from the rest of the country." Pisarski's national report shows Atlanta as tops in the nation for increase in commute times, and he called the region "the poster child" for rising congestion. The initial survey results, released Friday by the Center for Transportation and the Environment at a seminar sponsored by the Clean Air Campaign, say the vast majority of those who changed residence or jobs within the previous year weren't even leaving metro Atlanta. Asked, unprompted, for the reason they moved or changed jobs, 23 percent said their commute, far and away the highest for any factor, said Jennifer Gregory of CTE. Career advancement got 12 percent. Size of house was 9 percent. The study also queried employers. Of the 20 percent of employers who opened new locations or moved existing ones within the past five years, 42 percent said they did it to get better access to workers. Officials at the Clean Air Campaign, which promotes teleworking, say the practice has jumped along with traffic congestion, and Woodward of GRTA said that increase probably factors into the decreasing driving distances. Even the most promising trends make only tiny dents in Atlanta's traffic, though, and it remains to be seen whether the green trends will continue, or whether new transportation funding will manage to release the pressure that to some extent is driving them. State officials say widened roads have to be a major part of the solution since driving is a major choice of Atlantans, like it or not. They are glad to see mixed-use developments and teleworking, but fear that such benefits are the silver lining to an appalling loss to the economy from road congestion. Kevin Green of the Clean Air Campaign agreed, sort of. "I don't think you can pour enough asphalt to accommodate the type of travel we see today 20 years from now," Green said. "Roads are going to continue to be dominant. But we need choices." David Tufts has both pushed and followed the live-work-play trend. Founder of the Condo Store and a division president of the Marketing Directors, he has marketed denser living in many parts of metro Atlanta. On a personal level, he remembers his first easy commute from his home in Buckhead to offices he opened this January in Midtown, following years of slogging to the Perimeter. His employees now can walk to Midtown meetings. Gone, for him, is the traffic ooze on Ga. 400. "It was amazing," he said. "My mileage on my car is so different, I think I log three miles a day now." Directory: News -> Georgia Georgia -> Paying for energy efficiency investments a challenge Urvaksh Karkaria Georgia -> Atlanta's district sec office to be regionalized Atlanta Business Chronicle March 30, 2007 Georgia -> Atlanta Business Chronicle From the February 28, 2005 print edition Georgia -> Atlanta Journal Constitution Thursday April 7, 2005 Georgia -> Atlanta Business Chronicle From the January 3, 2005 print edition Georgia -> Charlotte Business Journal March 31, 2006 by David Mildenberg-Staff Writer Georgia -> Atlanta Business Chronicle From the April 11, 2005 print edition Georgia -> Atlanta Business Chronicle From the December 5, 2005 print edition Georgia -> The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Download 9.94 Kb. Share with your friends:
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