Self-driving shuttles, congestion fees among possible plans to relieve Atlanta traffic problems

ATLANTA — Many Atlanta streets have gone through a transformation.

Some have dropped from four lanes to two or added bike and pedestrian lanes.

The city has even reduced the speed limit on many streets to 25 miles an hour.

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Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston found out there are even more ideas on the table, like self-driving trains.

It’s been a topic at City Hall for years: self-driving vehicles used like a shuttle in midtown. There’s also talk of making those who drive into the city pay a fee.

Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi said one consideration is a congestion fee, where anyone who drives into the city would pay a fee to use city roads.

“It would be great to do a pilot project like that in the city to see how it works,”

It’s something the city has talked about for years but has not been ready to do.

“It would require some good state coordination to do something like that. It would be great if we did a pilot project in a certain part of the city to see how it works,” Farokhi said.

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Instead, voters will decide if they want to fix the roads through a four-tenths of a cent retail sales tax, known as a T-SPLOST, or Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

“We’ll have a T-SPLOST on the ballot in May when people go to vote in the primaries,” Farokhi said.

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Another idea the city has been discussing is driverless shuttles that would carry people from Ponce City Market to Georgia Tech.

“That corridor of North Avenue is already hardwired for that autonomous delivery, but we haven’t seen that come to life yet. We’re hungry to see what the future of transportation looks like in our city, again where you’re walking or driving,” Farokhi said.

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