Metro Atlanta is No. 3 in gas guzzling
Metro Atlanta is home to above-average unemployment and foreclosures.
Now, you can add another unwanted distinction to the list — we’re the nation’s third-worst area for gas guzzling at a time of high pump prices, Forbes reports.
The average Atlanta household drives 21,300 miles a year, using 1050 gallons of gas, Forbes writes. At $4 a gallon, that’s $4,200.
We burn 35 gallons of gas a year sitting in traffic jams, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2010 Urban Mobility Report.
Metro Atlanta follows just two North Carolina areas — Raleigh-Durham-Chapel-Hill and Charlotte — for the top spots in gas guzzling, Forbes reports.
Forbes asked the Center For Neighborhood Technology, a think tank in Chicago, to come up with the numbers. It’s not enough to look at where gas prices are highest — what matters most is how many miles you drive, Forbes writes. The methodology utilizes data gathered by federal and state surveys that come from the odometers of thousands of cars nationwide. Excluded are the miles driven by trucks, buses and travelers just passing through on the highway.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina is No. 1 because the cities and suburbs are close enough that people don’t think twice about driving from one place to the other, Forbes explained.
On the flip side, the Los Angeles area is not a guzzler, but a gas miser, Forbes reports. That’s because residents of centrally located areas of L.A. don’t have that far to drive to get to work or the beach. As a result, the L.A.-Long Beach area ranks second among the cities that use the least gasoline, Forbes writes.
New York ranks first as a gas miser because of its extensive subway system.
America’s biggest gas-guzzling metro areas
1. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill
2. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill
3. Atlanta
4. Nashville
5. Monmouth-Ocean Counties, NJ
6. Greensboro-Winston Salem
7. Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ
8. Jacksonville
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Riverside-San Bernardino
- Henry Unger, The Biz Beat
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72 comments Add your comment
leg watcher
May 24th, 2011
12:19 pm
hey Steve , we drive big SUVs and big trucks so we can look down on your wife and see her legs !
Metro Atlanta is No. 3 in gas guzzling - City-Data Forum
May 24th, 2011
12:25 pm
[...] Another reason we need better transit options… [LEFT]Metro Atlanta is No. 3 in gas guzzling Metro Atlanta is No. 3 in gas guzzling | The Biz Beat [...]
pj
May 24th, 2011
12:27 pm
# 5 on Michaels list should be top priority. Atlanta was a railroad hub. That’s why it exists. I agree with # 6 as well, but all you have to do is look at the AJC vent to see what a bike-hatin’ population Atlantans are for the most part.
Keith Kalland
May 24th, 2011
12:39 pm
I’m dead you know.
Soccer Mom II
May 24th, 2011
12:42 pm
MARTA? Not in my pristine, white neighborhood!
PR
May 24th, 2011
12:44 pm
One reason is beaucse Atlanta has NO REAL MASS TRANSIT. MARTA is a joke. Who ever heard of a system that ends at the Interstate bypass loop. IF MARTA really wants to succeed it needs to extend way past I-285. Just look at the DC Metro for a real mass transit system. Atlanta is never going to improve as long a stupid people refuse to support mass transit. Get used to traffic jams and spending $$$ on gas.
atl transit
May 24th, 2011
12:48 pm
Sweet numbers from Forbes. Wonder who crafted those. “The average Atlanta household drives 21,300 miles a year, using 1050 gallons of gas”. That comes out to just over 20 mpg for the average Atlanta household. Yeah right. Looks like someone at Forbes included some outliers getting 50 mpg in their “average” instead of doing a weighted average with most of the population driving SUV’s, trucks, or high performance luxury vehicles that all get less than 20 mpgs.
I’m also guessing that they did this per capita, which means that we technically burn the most gas. This title should have been ours and we should fight to claim it. We work so hard, driving EVERYWHERE, we deserve this.
By the way, I rode my bike to work today.
j
May 24th, 2011
1:06 pm
I must say, i drive a 2011 Honda Pilot and it has the feature that shows miles per gallon. One of the BEST tools for people these days and i think every SUV should have one. I’ve realized more and more now how much just stepping on the gas a little can drop your miles per gallon like crazy. Also, very true about the inconsistency with the traffic lights. Some are very well timed and others are horrible. If all traffic lights were timed better, i could easily get 20-21 miles per gallon. I know that isn’t great BUT i was able to get 28-30 mpg out of my 2009 CRV.
Road Scholar
May 24th, 2011
1:21 pm
Yeah, we don’t need “no” transit! Those of you who dislike transit and call it “third world” have never looked at our roadsides and the amount of trash that people throw out. GDOT has spent $16 M on trash pickup statewide each year. A state inhabited by pigs!
icallitlikeiseeit
May 24th, 2011
1:45 pm
Complaining that Atlanta is #3 in gas guzzing but the public transportation system here is a joke. Many people from up north (like Boston, New York, Chicago) have not driven as much as they drive down here because public transportation, here, is far less superior than it is up there. MARTA wants to charge $95.00 for a monthly card starting in October, but the service is going to be cut (forcing people to drive more to get to work, like the, now, defunct C-Tran in Clayton County), service ends at a specific hour (causing those who may get off at midnight or the ones that have to be at work at 6 am to drive), buses and trains are always late (forcing people to drive to work JUST to be on time or leave home 3 hours early to be 15 minutes late to work), but people are suprised why Atlanta burns so much gas. Honestly, those who live here in Atlanta (that have a car) really have no choice because public transportation sucks harder than a kid sucking a tootsie roll pop. I agree that people move here on their own accord (and most don’t research MARTA before they do), but, until something is done (i.e getting rid of the union at MARTA, firing the lazy people who are just there for the pension, and reorganizing the entire system), Atlanta will, always, be at the top of this list.
Soccer Mom II
May 24th, 2011
1:48 pm
Just the talk of MARTA reaching out to my area has caused the property values to decline.
FYI….Our house is now for sale.
BRENDA
May 24th, 2011
1:55 pm
My question is: how many more sub-divisions worth of commuters can I-20 handle? They keep building homes and all these extra people get on the freeway. In parts of Texas, if they do not have land to build another freeway….they build another freeway above the present one. In years to come, millions more Atlantans will be travelling these same freeways. And you think it’s crowded now!!!!!!!!!!!!
TnGelding
May 24th, 2011
2:08 pm
Fill ‘er up! Southern sprawl, y’all!
Destin Dawg
May 24th, 2011
2:36 pm
we moved out 12 years ago .. visit several times a year… I CAN”T believe 2 of us zoom around in HOV lane at rush hour !!!!!!! NOBODY car pools… all single drivers… stuck in bumper to bumper slow moving traffic !!!!!
Yup
May 24th, 2011
2:53 pm
LA is a gas mizer? All credibility lost. That place is like Atlanta on steroids.
Mike
May 24th, 2011
3:05 pm
Captain obvious here… Metro Atlanta is HUGE.It takes more fuel to drive further. In reality very few lights are timed.There is absolutely no real driver training or penalty for stupidly causing massive backups. The only enforcement is revenue generated and pinhead drivers stomp on their brakes at 70 when they see flashing lights. Road construction is painfully corrupt and inefficient, takes billions and eons. Won’t it be fun to see what happens after the multi billion dollar makeover of the HOV2 lane into the multi billion dollar express PPV lane? Maybe it will become the multi billion dollar Govt employees only lane. Put high speed rail right down the middle I say. Run it from the suburbs to the city efficiently and reasonably and you will see a real reduction in traffic. But not in corruption and stupidity.
randall flagg
May 24th, 2011
3:17 pm
Steve has it right;the city ihs become a gauntlet of trffic lights. a lot of gas is needed to bring a 4000pound rolling living room from a dead stop to 30to 35 mph
gaditchdoc
May 24th, 2011
3:22 pm
It is not that you drive SUV’s or Pickup trucks, it is the arrogant attitude that you bring along with it. We you have a White Tahoe, with a soccer ball stuck on the gas tank door, and choose to break the law by tailgating, speeding, texting, HOV lane violations, most people will notice you, and also notice the educator tag on your SUV. Stop acting like the world revolves around you. It does not, you are not at the Jersey Shore, and NOBODY cares who your are, much less what you drive.
DLink
May 24th, 2011
4:29 pm
Enough with the SUVs the ranking is based strictly on the number of miles driven. GA is near the top state for home foreclosures and I doubt many of those people are forced to move somewhere closer to their job, if they’re lucky enough to have one.
That brings up the tight job market. People are searching for jobs further away from home in order to find them, which may not pay enough to move closer to the job. Roughly 25 miles from work one way for me, how about you guys/gals? $360/mo rent+utilities where I’m at, $850/mo rent+utilities closer to work.
ATLJeff
May 24th, 2011
5:05 pm
Which I could get back the gas I wasted on I-20 Sunday afternoon. Road construction had the interstate down to one lane west of Douglasville. I spent 40 minutes creeping along and wasting gas.
FROM ATLANTA TO SEATTLE.2015
May 24th, 2011
6:24 pm
ONCE AGAIN ATLANTA RANKS HIGH IN A NEGATIVE LIGHT..THE NEGATIVES ARE STARTING TO OUTNUMBER THE POSITIVES ABOUT LIVING IN METRO ATLANTA(THANKS TO FOLKS MOVING HERE FROM THE NORTHERN SLUMS AND POOR PLANNING FROM THE STATE AND THE CITY EQUALS A SPRAWLED OUT H@# hole)..RACISM,AND DIVISION HAS STOPPED MARTA FROM BEING THE FORCE IT NEEDS TO BE IN METRO ATLANTA MAKING IT EASIER TO GET AROUND ..I DO NOT KNOW WHY ANYONE WOULD WANT TO LIVE HERE ANYMORE WITH ALL THE PROBLEMS AND CRIME AND TRAFFIC AND POOR QUALITY OF LIFE..I VISITED GREENVILLE,SC AND WAS AMAZED AT THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE BEAUTY OF THE PLACE AND HOW EASY IT WAS TO WALK AROUND ..I,M RETIRING IN 5 YRS AND LOOK FORWARD TO MOVING TO BEAUTIFUL SEATTLE AND SOME PROGRESIVE THINKERS AFTER 30 YRS HERE ALL AND ALL THE OLMPICS RUINED THE ATLANTA METRO AREA
TnGelding
May 25th, 2011
1:06 am
Live near where you work or work near where you live. It’s a matter of lifestyles and priorities.