my 85 could beat up your 75…
was thinking as i was driving out to work this morning that this city has some notoriously horrible interchanges and intersections. i know a ton of studies, like this one, have been done on the worst bottlenecks, but its really more that time isn’t it?
i mean the really bad ones are frustrating, dangerous, obnoxious and seem to bring out the worst in people. i’m curious based on everybody’s experience, what are the worst interchanges in atlanta.
my top three after they jump.
okay, admittedly my highway driving is pretty much limited to my commute from east atlanta to alpharetta each day, and these are going to reflect that, which is why i want to know what you think are the worst, but here are my top three –
#3 – georgia 400 northbound @ i-285 eastbound – here is the scenario. traffic coming off of i-285 east merges into the LEFT lane of the alpharetta autobahn headed north. so the scenario goes like this; everybody comes out of the toll booth like a slingshot. they are headed north at approaching reckless driving speed, and BAM! here comes traffic off of 285 coming off a horrendously steep curve merging it at 40 mph. of course everyone knows it so they are all trying to stay in the middle lane. but, you guessed it, there is invariable some guy going 40 in the middle lane, causing a game of brinksmanship where everyone tries to pass on the left and then get back in to the center right before the merge. it is amazing someone does not get killed here everyday.
#2 – georgia 400 southbound at i-85 southbound – one of the worst designed merges of all time. tens of thousands of cars coming out of buckhead and points north all have to get down to one lane before getting on to 85. and then what happens? immediately upon getting onto 85 the two right lanes end. so now all those cars have to try to merge two lanes amongst the i-85 traffic. fixing this merge would probably safe both ga 400 south and i-85 south commuters 30 minutes every day. my biggest problem is by the time i get here i have to, pardon the expression, pee like a racehorse. i have become best friends with the qt on sidney marcus boulevard.
#1 – by a landslide, i-75/85 southbound @ i-20- this is the worst merge ever created. so the two lanes to exit i-20 are exit only. they are created at the on-ramp in front of grady hospital. between the time they are created and the exit for i-20 there are FOUR onramps that come on to the highway into the two exit only lanes. so imagine, everyone trying to get on 20 merging right. everyone entering the highway from downtown merging left and you have absolutely the worst gridlock in the city. this interchange is so bad, i will not even attempt it before 8:00 pm, exiting the connector at 17th or north avenue.
so there are mine. what are yours?
I concur with your top three. The GA 400 corridor is a non-stop suckfest.
Anything to do with GA 400 is the worst. I refuse to take any contract work up in Alpharetta.
I completely concur with your top three — I’m lucky enough to have a really ridiculously short commute but have experienced each of those — and they are each horrible in their own way.
I’ll admit that despite some awful aggressive driving tendencies that I try to suppress (child of the suburbs), I have actually missed the I-20 exit on the southbound connector. Coming from the HOV sneaky-style entrance from Baker Street downtown, it’s damn near impossible to get over what feels like a dozen lanes to get to 20.
Coupled with the speeding asshats and the slow and confused lost drivers, it’s surprising to me that there aren’t serious accidents there every day.
My three are the same. i would also like to add a fourth. It is not really an interchange, but it totally sucks and brings out the worst in people. On Lenox Rd., leaving the mall, going towards Buford Highway and 85, there is a point where it merges from two lanes into one. The right hand lane continues on, and the left lane becomes a turn lane. At rush hour, though, the right lane gets backed up, so Buckhead assholes drive up as fast as they can in the turn lane, then cut over into the right lane to bypass the backup. This is the reason that I do not want the county information on the new tags to be made less easy to decipher; When I am at this merge, if you are out-of-state or from a non-metro county, I cut you a break, show the southern hospitality, give you the benefit of the doubt, and let you merge in. On the other hand, if you have a Fulton or Dekalb plate? Prepare to work your ass off to cut me off. I would gladly rear-end you just to show you up as the jerk you are. My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it.
I vote for Indian Trail @ Steve Reynolds. This crowded intersection must add at least 2 or 3 minutes to my 12 minute commute.
Oh wait – stop throwing eggs please!
What’s I-85? Oh yeah – that insane mess I cross over and thumb my nose at everyday.