City Staff hired another consultant Arcadis, to draw up alternatives to the ThrU turn proposal. Again Tax dollars are used on people outside of Johns Creek to decide what should happen in Johns Creek.
#1 Is a road between Perimeter Church and 2 subdivisions Forrest Lake & Doublegate. Clearly the tranquility of residents and safety of the students and campers at CAA is not a concern. This concept should never even been proposed. Yet, don't forget hundreds of thousands of tax dollars were spent years ago studying this concept.
#2 Seems the most reasonable and effective of the bunch, and includes imminent domain of the shopping area where Kid 2 Kid is..
#3 Is a road behind Home Depot. Not sure the residents in that subdivision would like that. The road would come along and hug Parkway Baptist Church & Preschool. 
#4 is a combination of #2 & #3.
#5 is a TALL bridge for Old Alabama going over 141. $45,000,000.
#6 Is a tunnel under 141 at the cost of only $80,000,000. Mere pittance.
#7 & 8 Are the ThrU Turn Concepts
#9 is a bridge over State Bridge Rd $49,000,000
Unfortunately, the most logical and cheapest concepts were not proposed. What about Coordinating the Traffic Lights in the area?
Let's try synchronizing and coordinating the lights better before discussing construction that would further impact our daily lives, significantly altering the area and take away people's homes as suggested in the proposals.
The lights need to be longer. As in more than 9 seconds for the south 141 left turn lanes. Make light 20-30 seconds, empty out the turn lanes and there will be less accidents.
Currently the left turn light is about 9-10 seconds and people bolt through at the end causing collisions. People are fed up with waiting 3 light cycles to make a left turn. It is ridiculous.
Make the the through lane lights longer as well. You can if the turn lights are longer (the cars queued will be gone!).
When a light is green, the lights up ahead should be as well! That will keep the traffic flowing.
What do you think the City should do to improve this intersection?
You can let City Staff know your thoughts on the proposals HERE.
Email your comments and ideas to [email protected]
There will also be public comment regarding the ThrU turns and the above concepts at City Hall tonight. 12000 Findley Rd. 7pm.
Source: City of Johns Creek
I disagree with your "most reasonable and effective" option #2 - First, cars already cut through here to avoid the intersection, using it as a street. I don't know if making it an "official" street would help that much. Second, it doesn't seem to help that much to put cars out barely past the intersection onto State Bridge. I believe cars need to be routed further down State Bridge Road, as in option #3. Last and most important, it would put the businesses in one building OUT of business as well as remove all parking for the cafe at the end of Target (which belongs to my daughter and son-in-law), effectively cutting off customer parking and making traffic heavy right next to their outdoor eating area. These are small established business owners who will lose their livelihoods. I don't think the city should put small businesses out of business!
The overpass and the tunnel options would destroy an established residential area, displacing some Johns Creek residents and ruining the property values of those that remain. I don't like the idea of tearing down a nice, established neighborhood, The overpass would be unsightly and would not fit into the area aesthetically - and I imagine the Atlanta Athletic Club would have a lot to say about an overpass view from their golf course. The city is currently spending millions of dollars and 2+ years construction on Old Alabama at 141 - surely THAT is being done to help the traffic situation. That work and money would be wasted if the overpass option were chosen as the intersection of Old Alabama and 141 would be completely re-worked.
The overpass of 141 over State Bridge would move traffic through the intersection, but, again, would take out several small businesses. And since rush hour traffic backs up from Medlock Bridge Rd (near the Forum) all the way to McGinnis Ferry, I'm not sure where the cars would go once they crossed the overpass. Unless something is done to synchronize the lights, as this article suggests, I believe our tax dollars will be spent for nothing.
@Connie Jones Completely agree. We went to Medlock Bridge Crossing & 141 after publishing this. The lights will need to be longer to accommodate the traffic to cross 141 and go to the new road.
Better yet, since there is sooo many cars on Medlock Bridge Crossing waiting to go left (north) on 141, why not make that light longer? This would also deter people cutting through the shopping center now.
Again, I think the City needs to focus on altering the traffic lights to accommodate the traffic.
Thank you for your suggestion to make turn lights longer and to synchronize lights.
Let's try the lights, shall we? Also, heading east on State Bridge, the left hand turn lane is short due to the median. Cars wishing to turn left onto 141 are sitting way back waiting to get into the turn lane. I could see that was a mistake when the expensive medians were being constructed. Frustrating.....
make the light longer? that's the whole reason I avoid that intersection. You can sit at that light for a month.
Why not tunnel States Bridge under Ga14k for cars going straight towards Pleasant Hill. Then cars not tunneling can be set to turn north or south on Ga141 (Medlock Bridge).
A BIG help going south on Ga 141 is that crazy light at the FORUM. Gwinnett County doesn't seem to want to accommodate North Fulton drivers. The cross road light should be much shorter (or traffic back up sensitive). Otherwise we can do lots of changes to States Bridge and Alabama Rd, but we will still be backed up on Ga141 after crossing Chattahoochee.
The back-up on SBR is atrocious going east as soon as you go over the Johns Creek bridge. A lane should be put in for parents picking up kids at the elementary school. Those cars back up a ton of traffic waiting to go into the school lot. More cops too! Traffic gets held up by people texting and not moving!!! Mayor! Where are you????
It is very obvious to everyone that at the least the lights need to be synchronized! Not rocket science!
However longer turning lanes on the right and left sides would also assist in reducing the traffic jam - it did not help when they eliminated the turn into Publix in the middle of the intersection just before state bridge road. Now everyone is doing U-Turns and slowing down traffic.
Traffic is occuring before State Bridge - Old Alabama is now a disaster too! Sorry to say but I think we need a 3 lane road all the way down to the Forum. Why not create a center lane that could be switched from north to south depending on time of day to address heavier volume hours.
Also, when they eliminated the turning lanes into the shopping center (on the right going south) they did not do us any service - now everyone just slows down traffic to turn into the shopping center.
All in all - just addressing the turning on State Bridge Road will be a waste of time and money. The problem is much more extensive.
We need our officials to be less short sited! We continue to build shopping strips and housing but do not expand the roads to accomodate the traffic. Even when we expanded the roads on Abbotts Bridge - How stupid was that not to create more lanes - just enormous waste of road space on turning and center aisles! Abbotts Bridge could be an alternative to get to State Bridge Rd and ultimately 400 if it werent so congested AND it doesn't have to be - there is enough road space to create 2 lanes going towards State Bridge.
Getting time to move out of Johns Creek when you can't even go out to dinner without sitting in major traffic or it takes 45 minutes to go a few miles to the post office!
Did anyone read the recent article with regard to the population explosion projected for Cumming. I think I read over half million.. (sorry I forgot exactly) That means even MORE drivers will be using Medlock Bridge and the surrounding arteries. Suwanne is growing too! Much of our traffic congestion is due to drivers driving through JC to get where they are going. (They are trying to avoid 400, which is no picnic either) AFTER we time the lights (duh!), like many of us have been asking for for years, perhaps we could charge a toll, to non JC residents??? Just a thought... At least that would put money in JC budget to deal with the wear and tear on our roads. Tractor trailer trucks also use our Medlock, and even our side roads (which they are not supposed to do, where's the cops?), in order to avoid congestion on 400. The city KNEW (or certainly should have) when they (not sure who they is) opened up the extra lanes on Medlock that folks from Sawnee and Cumming would use Medlock. They SHOULD HAVE PLANNED well before the issue got this big. I personally have called the major's office (for years now), written letters to council members asking they at least time the lights. NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. I don't get it. Maybe we could build ten more roundabout?! NOT
Not sure we could charge non JC residents a toll.....we all pay the same GA gas tax, Federal gas tax etc.. Many JC residents also use Gwinnett county and other municipalties roads as well. They would simply reciprocate and charge us a toll. Hopefully the voters approve the TSPLOST this November. This is a direct result of years and years of intentionally under funding transportation both Marta and roads. JC City council was still upset over a mere non noticeable six cent gas tax increase last year to fund a tremendous back log maintenance in the state. Many roads and intersections are beyond capacity all across Metro Atlanta. The region got what it deserved.....the voters wanted no sales tax increase in TSPLOST 2012, many don't want Marta, many don't want to pay a penny more in taxes despite taxes being very low for the masses......this was a predictable result of years of intentional under funding and neglect and it magically won't ago away unless we have a desire to invest in our own community by raising the needed funds to do meaningful improvements: Grade Separation and limited access roads and Marta expansion.
Synchronizing of traffic lights is a no-brainer that our city should be able to implement without any hesitation or public input. In my opinion, finding an option that both provides for continuous through flow of traffic on 141 & State Bridge, as well as one that eliminates the lefts through this dangerous intersection is the most reasonable option. I am no transportation planner, but the idea of a dog-bone intersection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC1vxejA0U4 looks like it would meet both those needs. Space is a big issue at that intersection because of the tight retail surrounding the intersection. But I think with creative construction, this dog bone intersection option could be a real game changer for this entire corridor! Guess I should share with the city staff huh? This dogbone roundabout could be a possibility too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJf6rh_h8s.
I agree. Further exploration of the dog-bone intersection looks like something that should looked at closely. Not sure how much it would cost, but it does resemble roundabouts which does seem to be the city's answer to everything. The example on YTube has very little traffic. It would interesting to see how it actually works in our situation.
Timing the lights should be the FIRST step, and should have been done LONG before now. Does anyone know why this solution continues to be ignored???
Going back 20 years and then again 10 years ago, we pushed for Impact Studies BEFORE development and rezoning was permitted....we'd seen awful traffic, school trailers due to overflow, noise, accidents and far too many vacant businesses in strip centers to truly support more unbridled development.
Our leaders' ongoing rhetoric was that landowners and developers had rights to make money. No disagreement there, but Smart development matters to great cities. We had an well crafted overlay district which turned out to be worth little due to inaccurate filing.
Residents poured themselves into making JC special only to have the work they did be overruled or poorly handled in the end. Now we are stuck with the consequences. How about first Stopping More development until we handle what we have and negotiating with adjoining cities to present their plans (With funding) to address traffic they will create and funnel through JC?