A task force studying traffic congestion in Georgia is recommending a radical change to fast-forward cost-effective projects that will improve traffic congestion in metro Atlanta.

The Governor’s Congestion Mitigation Task Force is recommending the weighting for congestion factors to be changed to 70 percent. Currently, congestion is given a weight of 11 percent as one of several factors that are considered when prioritizing road projects in Atlanta.

Doing so will “ensure identification of critical projects for inclusion in its next update of the Regional Transportation Plan,” according to the task force’s final recommendations. The target date to adopt the next RTP is mid-2007.

If the change is implemented, officials hope it will pave the way for spending road money where it can best be utilized to keep traffic flowing, particularly during the weekday commuting times. Commuters in Fayette, Coweta and South Fulton counties have seen travel times increase in recent years, and with the region’s growth not slowing officials predict congestion will worsen as more cars hit the road, particularly when making the weekday commute into and through Atlanta.

The task force is also recommending that a travel time index for the entire region be used to measure improvement in congestion levels. The index is a ratio of how long it takes to travel a given distance in the peak travel time as opposed to free flow conditions at the speed limit of the roadway.

Currently, the travel time index for the 20-county Atlanta region is 1.44, meaning that it takes 44 percent longer to travel a given road during the peak congestion period than it would if there were free traffic flow.

The task force’s recommendations are being forwarded to the State Transportation Board, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and the State Road and Tollway Authority. Each agency has a hand in creating Atlanta’s regional transportation plan and how each project is prioritized.

The task force is also recommending that the agencies develop and use a “technically consistent and transparent methodology” for analyzing the benefits and costs of various traffic improvement projects.

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