As seen in the AJC:
The state would never build another freeway lane in metro Atlanta open unconditionally to all drivers, if tentative guidelines being used at the state Department of Transportation become permanent policy.
Any new lanes built for limited-access highways in metro Atlanta — like the interstates and parts of Ga. 400 with no stoplights — would have to be “managed” lanes. Those are lanes where some type of control mechanism limits who can use the lanes, whether that be charging a toll, or restricting traffic to trucks or car pools, or a combination. The idea is to create long-term free-flowing capacity rather than simply building new general purpose lanes that probably will clog up as metro Atlanta grows.
Back when I used to live in Alabama, I loved going to Atlanta, something I did very frequently. However, the sprawl and the traffic in/around the area was annoying (made worse by a lot of pre-Olympics road construction).
In the times I’ve been back since I moved north, Atlanta has kept growing, and so has the traffic volume and the sprawl. Sadly the infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the demand…and I can imagine that a person would go nuts if they had to commute with that congestion on a daily basis.
I can all too easily imagine the DOT believing it needed to do something to get Atlantans to shift out of single-passenger vehicle commuting mentality, lest the metro area be paved over completely and be strangled in smog.