City: Decatur Population Up, But Traffic Congestion Down

The Decatur city planning commission discussed a report on Monday by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) that indicates that while the city's population has increased over the past 20 years, traffic congestion has slowly been going down in areas around the city.

Since 1996, the city's population has gone up from roughly 18,000 to 22,000, an increase of around 18 percent. One would expect that would lead to an increase in traffic congestion, but actually, statistics show a decrease in most areas.

The numbers in GDOT's report, as reported by AJC.com, show that traffic has gone down anywhere from 8 to 9 percent around sections like Renfroe Middle School on College Avenue and around the MARTA parking lot at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Sycamore Drive.

Traffic is down around 13 to 15 percent in areas like College Avenue and Sams Crossing, and around St. Thomas More Church on Ponce de Leon.

Impressively, though the previously shuttered Westchester Elementary reopened two years ago, traffic on Scott Boulevard near the school is down a whopping 23 percent.

One area with a significant increase in traffic is West College, where congestion is up 35 percent.

Read more on GDOT's report on AJC.com.