By ARIEL HART , MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/12/07

It's classic Atlanta: The longest of the long commutes got more popular.

New census estimates released Wednesday tell the sorry transportation tale. The year 2006 added 6,864 metro Atlantans who spend 90 minutes or more on their average commute, one way. That's a total of 88,023 "extreme commuters."

The number of those who spend between an hour and an hour-and-a-half one-way rose to 225,964.

The 2006 figures also show that the individual car loosened its grip on metro Atlanta commutes - slightly - in a nationwide trend that could follow gas price hikes.

Metro Atlanta's overall average commute time stayed stable, at about a half-hour. But according to an AJC analysis of the census estimates, one of the clearer trends over the years from 2004 to 2006 is increasing numbers of people who seem bound and determined to maintain that long-distance relationship with work.

Vancouver, British Columbia - To metro Atlantans, congestion is a dirty word.

But when a delegation of 117 regional leaders recently visited this Canadian city, they were introduced to a whole new concept.

"Congestion is our friend," said Larry Beasley, former city planning director for Vancouver, who has been recognized worldwide as helping create a new urban model. "Density is good."

Metro leaders were exposed to a vastly different approach to growth and development during the 11th annual LINK trip, organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission, short for "Leadership, Innovation, Networking, Knowledge."

Vancouver's strategy of density and transit is a stark contrast to the Atlanta region's road-oriented sprawl.

In the 1970s, Vancouver residents waged a 10-year battle to keep freeways from its urban core. They successfully defeated a plan that would have run a highway through its Chinatown and run along its downtown waterfront.

Now a traffic light at the edge of city limits signals that the interstate from Tijuana to Canada has come to a stop and is now a city street.