Transportation & Air Quality

Overview

Air pollution emitted from transportation contributes to smog, and to poor air quality, which causes pollutants to get into our lungs. When air quality is poor, exposure can cause severe health problems such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and even cancer, and reduces the quality and number of years of life. Vulnerable groups, namely children, people with chronic diseases, and the elderly, are particularly sensitive to the dangerous effects of toxic air pollution. Polluted air also causes eutrophication and acidification of our ecosystems, which results in the loss of agricultural productivity, irreversible damage to ecosystems, and loss of biodiversity.

Norcross has implemented a number of measures around transportation and air quality. Electric vehicle plug-in chargers are available at City Hall and Pinnacle Park. Parking at City Hall is open to the public for convenient access to Downtown Norcross. The City has also partnered with The Brunswick apartment complex to allow public parking in their parking deck for visitors to have easy access to nearby shops, restaurants, Lillian Webb Park, and the new public library branch. 

Norcross Community Development and Public Works are working to develop a “Sharrow” (a shared street and bike lane) that will loop from Downtown Norcross to Mitchell Road, along Brook Hollow Parkway then up Beaver Ruin Road. The sharrow is designated to tie into the Safe Routes to School initiative. The Safe Routes to School Program is a movement that allows easy and safe access for children to walk and bike to school. This federally funded grant program awarded Norcross the ability to install a 10-foot-wide multi-use path along Beaver Ruin Road starting from Indian Trail Lilburn Road and ending at Price Place where Summerour Middle School and Baldwin Elementary School are located.

The City of Norcross is certified under the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Green Communities program and is one of only several Platinum-level Green Communities in metro Atlanta. Below, see how Norcross is doing on completing ARC Green Communities measures around transportation and air quality: