“The state performs exceptionally well in arterial pavement condition, bridge quality, and spending efficiency, but congestion remains a key challenge,” Baruch Feigenbaum, the highway report’s lead author and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, said in the report.
While there is no universally accepted definition of traffic congestion, when traffic requires commuters to nearly double their commute time to arrive on time, there’s a problem. The average commuter spent 87 hours in Atlanta traffic in 2024, according to the 2025 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Atlanta was ranked 9th for delays among major U.S. cities in 2024.
A ‘Good Policy Outcome’
Express lanes have proven to be a popular tool for moving motorists around Metro Atlanta. July 2026 data reveals more than 1.5 million active transponders in use. The data shows that millions of Georgians are using express lanes each month:
- Interstate 85 – 1,078,614
- Northwest Corridor – 779,356
- I-85 Extension – 480,131
- Interstate 75 South Metro – 454,372
In April, the Georgia Department of Transportation broke ground on the much anticipated Georgia 400 Express Lanes project, which will transform the corridor and the communities it serves and will change how GDOT builds large transportation infrastructure projects in the future.
The Georgia 400 Express Lanes project adds 16 miles of tolled express lanes in each direction between the North Springs MARTA Station in Fulton County and McGinnis Ferry Road in Forsyth County. At a cost of approximately $12.8 billion, it is GDOT’s first public-private partnership project and the nation’s largest. But it won’t be the last. The agency already has managed express lane projects lined up for the top end of Interstate 285, spanning from South Atlanta Road on the west side to Henderson Road on the east side, and another on I-285 East from Henderson Road to just past Interstate 20.
The public-private projects include funding from federal, state and mostly private-sector sources. Last year, after a two-year bidding process, GDOT selected SR400 Peach Partners, a consortium of domestic and international asset and project management firms and engineering and transportation construction companies, to design, build, operate and maintain the lanes for the next 55 years. In exchange for toll revenue, the company paid a $3.8 billion concession fee to build, manage and maintain the road; no additional taxes will be used to maintain Georgia 400 during the length of the contract…