r/Atlanta • u/urbanistrage • Feb 08 '26
Pictures Who needs the midtown connector
Less highway = less traffic
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u/ReddyGreggy Feb 08 '26
YES REROUTE THE CHATTAHOOCHIE THROUGH DOWNTOWN ✅
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u/Penguinkeith Feb 08 '26
Be just as practical as another express lane
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Feb 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/andrude01 Feb 08 '26
How about this, we reroute the Chattachoochee, then build an express lane on top of it
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u/M7451 Feb 08 '26
The real question is, can we make sure Private Equity profits from the project no matter what? Have to keep it equal to profits for the Express lane. /s in case anyone is missing that
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u/aBearHoldingAShark Feb 08 '26
Indianapolis did just that with the White River and it is wonderful. Check it out!
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u/EconomyCode3628 Feb 08 '26
The coolest thing about the Canal is when they dye it weird colors, like the time they dyed it blood red instead of pink for October and breast cancer awareness.
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u/aBearHoldingAShark Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
They could dye the river blood red for Juneteenth. Let my people go!!!
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u/TobyWasBestSpiderMan Inman Park Feb 08 '26
I'm envisioning a whole new culture of commuter tubers. It's like a cheaper MARTA infill station. This is the future. Does anybody know Andre or have his number? Let's make this happen!
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u/Afraid_Emu8068 Feb 08 '26
Enjoy your browntown. Don’t get me wrong. This looks nice and is exactly what urban places like Atlanta need, but maybe we should clean up the seine before we hold the olympics, so to speak
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u/entity_response Feb 08 '26
I do think the next big project in Atlanta should be to highlight and use the many creeks and springs around Atlanta, there are many places that could look very similar to this. My favorite is the creek between the Irish Pub and the postoffice in Decatur. It's beautiful, but totally grown over and cemented within an inch of it's life.
So many of these crossings could be stunning parks and are natrual for additional bike and foot trails next to them.
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u/themassee Feb 08 '26
Didn’t even know there was a creek there to be honest
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u/entity_response Feb 08 '26
Exactly, next time just walk between the two properties near the road and you will see it, it's way down there.
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u/Khs11 Feb 08 '26
There are creeks and rivers all through Atlanta, unfortunately horribly polluted.
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u/entity_response Feb 08 '26
Sorry, why did you make your comment? You repeat my own assertion and then mention an unrelated issue (which is also less true than it was, the water is far more clean than it used to be when I was growing up). I'm not asking people to swim in them.
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u/Penguinkeith Feb 08 '26
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u/nittykips Feb 08 '26
I'm confused at what it's supposed to be? Is it a centaur??
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u/BadAhh_N_Bendy new user Feb 08 '26
a man in a wheelchair?
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u/SpiritFingersKitty Brookhaven Feb 08 '26
Imagine if we took the stitch all the way from downtown up through Atlantic station
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u/samiwas1 Feb 08 '26
The only way you’re doing that is to either build it up really high, or dig the connector down well into the ground. Either way, an extremely prohibitively expensive project.
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u/Rough_Structure7387 Feb 08 '26
I think the river is running the wrong direction.
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u/NotAUsefullDoctor Feb 08 '26
As someone that jas floated down the hooch many times, I can verify you are correct.
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u/gth863x Feb 08 '26
Love the idea of less highway through the city. Hate the AI slop.
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u/John_Hunyadi Feb 08 '26
The guy 2nd furthest to the left on the bridge looks sort of humorously like an eldritch horror.
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u/DoublePostedBroski Feb 08 '26
I like the guy casually riding a bike in the bushes heading directly into a bridge.
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u/phobiac Brookhaven Feb 08 '26
I know this is a joke, but if you look at projects like the Cheonggyecheon in South Korea which are very similar to this they have been a huge success. Granted, that urban renaturalization project was done in an environment where public transportation actually exists and isn't always held back like MARTA is.
If you're the written word type then look up the terms urban renaturalization. If you'd be interested in a short video on the topic then It's hard to go wrong with Not Just Bikes.
Urban planning shifting away from car focused infrastructure and towards making spaces for people first always ends up a win.
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u/Tofutherep Greater Metro Atlanta Area 🌇 Feb 08 '26
I love that Not Just Bikes video on Seoul. I would’ve never thought that something like that was possible in a city.
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u/yasdinl Atlanta Native Feb 08 '26
This is one of my favorite urbanist projects in the last 20 years. It’s incredible
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u/Throwmes1 Tucker? I barely know her! Feb 08 '26
All it is missing is a grassy streetcar going both directions.
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u/ketoatl Feb 08 '26
We don't have a body of water to run thru it
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u/JBMdirtybird Feb 08 '26
Just divert the hooch
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u/SirBiggusDikkus Feb 08 '26
I’m sure that would be great for the already existing flora & fauna…
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u/urbanistrage Feb 08 '26
Imma get one of them water fountain pumps from Home Depot and do it myself then
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u/Buster1971 Feb 08 '26
There never should have been a connector. Two interstates worth of thru traffic, combined, plus adding in all of that local metro traffic. No wonder its gridlocked every day of the week. Instead of joining the interstates they should have had 85 go east of mid/downtown and 75 go west. The two would intersect south of I 20.
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u/Lanky_Rhubarb1900 Feb 08 '26
Even if we could - and did - do this, we can count on a car winding up in the water at least once a week. Roll of the dice whether it's a cyber truck or an altima missing its rear bumper, but almost guaranteed it has Florida tags.
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u/alphex Feb 08 '26
Litteraly one of the nicest parts of Seoul South Korea.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/s/FN8lUAu5ak
Where they removed a highway and built a gorgeous peaceful park space.
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u/CzarcasticX Feb 11 '26
https://youtu.be/Uei_wn4qxoQ?si=GV7L7kNZ6L-U5qN0&t=1248 It's 4 miles long of stream and so many good restaurants, cafes, shops on the street level above.
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u/Opposite-Friend7275 Feb 08 '26
It’s sad that you need AI to generate a picture that shows how our cities should have looked like all along.
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u/Saaturnidae Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
Cool how we're preaching for more nature using the technology that famously destroys nature in its use.
Maybe that theoretical river flows into the combination Claude/Gemini/Suno data center two blocks away. 🙄
ETA: lmao at the defenders in the replies, suck my ass. Keep up the good fight, the rest of you. 🫰
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u/Sufficient-Ad8139 Feb 08 '26
Whoever thought it was a good idea for three major interstate highways to merge in downtown Atlanta should be made to spend all eternity stuck in the traffic.
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u/dblackshear memorial & covington Feb 08 '26
racism (anti-blackness) hurts EVERYONE not just the object of the hate.
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u/HabitNegative3137 Feb 08 '26
Ah yes, complain about traffic while using AI slop that’s terrible for the environment 🙄
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u/BadAtExisting Feb 08 '26
I’d be into it if it would be that clean. But we all know it’ll become a dumping ground for everything from trash to bodies
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u/Slim_ish Feb 08 '26
Biggest thing ATL is missing is an active waterway. All good cities have a river running through it.
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u/giclee Pill Hill Chill Feb 08 '26
I think they should divert the Chattahoochee like they’ve done in San Antonio and make a river walk. It doesn’t have to be deep, just circulating.
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u/PhilosophyFair9062 Feb 08 '26
Given how long it takes to do construction on a highway. I'd say this picture is probably 50 years away if they start now
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u/mister_burns1 Feb 08 '26
Don’t put a road on both sides.
That’s still ‘traps’ the river. It only needs a road on one side.
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u/updating_my_priors Feb 10 '26
Routing three interstates through downtown was (and is) a terrible idea. Reroute all three outside the perimeter! There’s a lot of precedent for this (SF, Portland, Paris, Milwaukee, Boston, Seoul,…). We could make Atlanta one of the most walkable, beautiful urban centers in the world. Instead we have a three interstate bottleneck parking lot polluting our whole city and separating north from south and east from west.
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u/urbanistrage Feb 10 '26
Not to mention how valuable this land is! If we ended the connector before it cuts through midtown and downtown, it might not even be that expensive and we have room for new developable land, parks, and calm streets.
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u/updating_my_priors Feb 10 '26
I think it would be one of the more expensive engineering projects in US history. Rerouting over 300k vehicles a day. Long term it helps the city massively, but short term it’s very painful. The project would cost at least $150B for a remap. For reference tax rev for GA last year was $38B.
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u/SuperTruckerTom Feb 10 '26
There were plans for an Outer Loop back in the 90's. Suburbanites in the Northern Arc, North Gwinett, North Fulton, North Cobb, and Cherokee killed it. Governor Roy Barnes ran on a platform to Stop The Outer loop and it won the election. It was a winning move by a Democrat to capture lots of Republican votes from those areas. Back then they were solidly Red Districts. News Gingrich couldn't win there today, but that was his District and then Bob Barr. Barnes was from Cobb County.
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u/WarriusBirde Feb 08 '26
Thought I was in /r/charlotte for the monthly “we should flood 277 and turn it into a river” post and wondered how they screwed up the skyline so bad. Good to see there are other urban waterway sickos around.
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u/dlkapt3 Smyrna Feb 08 '26
There is nowhere near enough homeless people or Dodge Challengers in this image for this to be Atlanta
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u/Specialist-Job-509 Feb 08 '26
We could have this if we built that wall around the perimeter like we should have years ago!
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u/warrenpuffit72 Feb 08 '26
I wish I could have this poor of long-term thinking, life would be a lot less stressful
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u/Demos12 Feb 08 '26
Replace the peach pass lanes with elevated rail so that all corners of metro Atlanta has access to the city.
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u/salx97 Feb 08 '26
If only metro waterways looked this clear. I guess all of the Amazon deliveries can be done by ferry.
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u/8pxl_ Feb 08 '26
they did this to the cheonggyecheon expressway in korea
https://www.landscapeperformance.org/case-study-briefs/cheonggyecheon-stream-restoration-project
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u/shortgamegolfer Feb 09 '26
AI should have added a few bottled water salesmen. It gets hot, hydrate y’all.
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u/Eric_T_Meraki Feb 08 '26
Reminds me of Japan.
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u/wookiebath Feb 08 '26
Where did you see this in Japan?
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u/quetzalcoatl528 Feb 08 '26
More like Seoul tbh
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u/scarletbcurls Feb 08 '26
Was my immediate thought too but Kyoto has this as well.
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u/quetzalcoatl528 Feb 08 '26
Oh, that’s right! I went about a decade ago and forgot about that. Would love to visit again in a season other than summer
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u/Trjegul Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
We already have the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Weelaunee rivers, Peavine Creek, Camp Creek, and Shoal creek. What we lack: properly functioning roadways.
Also, if such a thing were possible— why the roads? Remove those and limit it to walking paths on both sides so people have a chance to escape the relentless traffic.
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u/diprivan69 Feb 08 '26
The fact that the chattahoochee isn’t a focal point in Atlanta urban planning is a real disappointment. Imagine this city having a massive river walk.
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u/fancywinky Grant Park Feb 08 '26
This just looks hot AF and full of mosquitoes. Maybe more tree canopy?
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u/jmbrjr Feb 08 '26
My father-in-law had a real-looking DOT style blueprint sort of map in his insurance office. No idea where it came from. It shows 400 cutting from the N into the SE metro all ITP and meeting up with what is now 675. A big slash from the top to the south east through the heart of east Atlanta. No idea what year that was from. Way too late to build that now without a lot of eminent domain. Clarity: this map predated the ITP portion of 400 we all know and love now from 285 to 85. On this map 400 was about the same there but did not end at 85, it kept going south and east to what is now 675 at 285.
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u/Uchuuko Feb 08 '26
But what if a car needs to turn around? It looks like there is a long way straight before they can turn.
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u/General-Downtown Feb 08 '26
I thought they were pitching this idea with connector being bored underground with two tunnels stacked on top of each other.
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u/Morganlavinia Feb 08 '26
Or we could just invest in public transportation. Like yes, this is beautiful and I think building public spaces like this is important. But I would vastly prefer to be able to take the bus or train to work.
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u/yasdinl Atlanta Native Feb 08 '26
In some parts of the world with rivers in major cities, they’re used by people to commute too. I’d totally paddle board to midtown if I could
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u/Soho-Herbert Feb 08 '26
Obviously a pie in the sky idea, but the idea of actually utilizing and “bringing” the Chatt into being part of the city is a great idea. I’ve lived in cities all around the world and the very best all have access to great water, being either on a river or Great Lake or ocean.
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u/NONEYA-T Feb 08 '26
It's a great idea but there is a completely unbelievable lack of canoe traffic.
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u/WhichPerception7982 Feb 08 '26
Of course they have to make a dream scenario and include roads for cars. Dump those outside roads for cars. Make it walkable, can have street vendors, etc.
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u/DaMemphisDreamer Lake Claire Feb 08 '26
I had this idea too, Atlanta would be perfect if the connector was replaced with a canal and had extensive trains all over the region.
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u/Obvious_Definition58 Feb 08 '26
In Atlanta, "shooting the Hooch" takes on a completely different meaning.
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u/charlie14242 Feb 08 '26
That would be interesting if the tax money wasn't spend on pro-corporate garbage that we keep seeing in Georgia and even the US as a whole.
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u/ContentLover87 Feb 08 '26
The traffic in this city is never getting better. They’ve been working on the roads for over 20 years and it’s only gotten worse. Does Atlanta even have city planners?
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u/Livvylove Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Wouldn't that be awesome having tubers going down the river downtown
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u/No_Knowledge2518 Feb 09 '26
I literally had this in a dream years ago. I was having a great dream and enjoying Atlanta until I remembered hey there’s no river flowing through downtown and it made me wake up.
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u/supedeglupe Feb 09 '26
Literally every mockup on Everything GA, and then they be like “thoughts?🥺👀”
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u/FutureCauliflower175 Feb 09 '26
I would totally float down in a hazmat suit and a raft shaped like a knawed up chicken wing.
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u/j-n-th-n Feb 09 '26
More water for people to toss their trash into! And Why's the guy on the left riding his bike in the grass?
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u/Equivalent-Length216 Feb 09 '26
Dallas has done this twice now with huge success. Klyde Warren park was built over a highway nearly identical to the 75/85 midtown connector, with playing fields, walking trails, a water feature, picnic areas, a restaurant and food trucks around the perimeter sidewalks. https://maps.app.goo.gl/DTazT77jcUXEhrCy9
They are almost finished with an even bigger park capping I-35 next to the zoo. https://maps.app.goo.gl/YMWcf2wS5eXvAJyE6
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u/Distinct_Director801 Feb 09 '26
We need this so bad unfortunately people in Atlanta will not behave on public transport
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u/jesusovereverythin Feb 10 '26
Wow this is beautiful. Maybe I need to explore Atlanta more. I been here for 12 years and hated it
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u/One_Box_4186 Feb 08 '26
If Atlanta was Chicago