The last Atlanta Streets Alive of the year took place on Peachtree Street, one of Atlanta’s hubs of activity. We wanted to study public support for a complete streets program on Peachtree, which might look a little like this rendering below:

In this, you’ll see unprecedented pedestrian access to Peachtree Street, where all types of transit modes are able to work together. Even just removing a lane on either side of a 5-lane street like Peachtree and extending bike lanes + street-level retail could make a huge difference in the area.

Chord Diagram

We saw huge public support for this right away – most people we talked to about Peachtree lamented the congestion and traffic.

Parallel Coordinates

Even before the event was over, we noticed a pattern: most of the people who participated at this event were between 25 and 34 years old, had a full-time job onsite (not remote), owned at least one car, and drove it around the city.

Parallel Coordinates Breakdown

Because I’m a data nerd at heart, I reorganized the data a few ways to see if other pictures emerged.

Employment Type vs Age

In short: Most of the people who participated in this project work full-time jobs onsite. Also, most people between 25-34 have full-time jobs, either remote or onsite.

Age vs Primary Mode of Transportation

In short: Most of the people who participated were between 25 and 34, and get around the city mostly by driving. The second most common transportation method was taking MARTA (and people in this age group also make up the highest percentage of MARTA riders). Pretty much, the bulk of any age group was driving.

Primary Mode of Transportation vs Employment Type

I was curious about this one and how it relates to commuting habits. Since most people work full-time jobs onsite, and mostly drive a car to get around the city, I feel like we can safely assume you’ll see most of them during rush hour. Remember, you’re not stuck in traffic; you are traffic.

Scatterplot

We found that a lot of people who regularly visit the Peachtree Street area come for work or they drive through as a commuter (okay, and a lot come for DragonCon). Most said that they usually get the heck out as soon as they’re done doing the thing they came for, but really loved the idea of being able to stay and spend time in the area if it was safer and more comfortable to exist as a pedestrian.