it's the I-85 & I-285 interchange AKA "spaghetti junction" It's been voted the most FUBAR freeway spot in the COUNTRY (yes including LA) from the truck driver's aspect for the past three years. They have to navigate across multiple lanes of dense, fast moving traffic in a very short distance, depending on their route. Bad enough in a small car, doing it in an 18 wheeler must be tons-o-fun!
This is ours: although, there are more than a few basket weave interchanges throughout the city as well...
and factor in almost ANYBODY can get a driver's license in the US! Minimal cost for a license, minimal training, minimum testing, etc etc. It's practically a god-given right, not a privilege! Don't have a license, registration, insurance? Drive anyway! Many US drivers have been busted multiple times for these things but just don't seem to give a shit.
nothing like living in a cookie-cutter subdivision surrounded by freeways! Makes you feel warm all over doesn't it?
It is even worse than it seems. 285 is the highway around Atlanta. right befor this interchange 85 and 75 are one passing through downtown. They just split off and traffic from both are trying to get to the airport which is right on top of that interchange. So you still have the downtown congestion there, and people trying to get to two major highways, and the beltway . You have a number of local exits, and the airport traffic. Plus the area has terrible roads, and construction barriers all over.
yes where 85/75/20 merge/diverge/converge going through downtown is another classic goat-fuck! Now I plan all my Atlanta activities to completely avoid this bullshit. I get off of I-20 coming from Augusta well to the east of that mess, and take secondary roads & streets into downtown or midtown. During my Memphis vacation I was none-too-pleased to find out that in Birmingham a section of the I-20 freeway was MISSING! Who the holy fuck takes a chunk out of the main freeway going through the middle of the city? Yeah that pushed my blood pressure into epic heights! The last time (a few years ago) I went through Birmingham there was an issue with some other road - why is it always Birmingham that's fucked up? BTW the freeway exchange where 20 meets 65 in Birmingham (or used to meet up until they took that chunk out for the next year or so) was nick-named "malfunction junction" when it was first built many years ago! Randy Newman has a satirical song called "Birmingham" (check it out on youtube!) that I can't listen to now because just the mention of Birmingham pisses me off to no end.
I know that area well because it was the home of AWA for my first few years of going, and because I did a lot of travel through Atlanta to go to mobile and down into Florida. When I first was driving it and did not know how everything worked it was a nightmare of watching for traffic, and trying to be in the right lanes for your exits. Also, any of the intersections with the three major highways that run through Atlanta and the beltway are nightmares of construction and terrible driving. That one just happens to be that much worse because you have the beltway, two major highways, and a huge airport to deal with. I will say that the Atlanta airport strips away traffic based on a couple of exits and does not cause the problems other huge airports cause, but all the commercial and personal travel traffic is trying to get off there while you have three highways all meeting. I would say there might be some worse areas around NYC, Baltimore, and DC that I have seen, but that is up for debate. That particular nightmare is OMG awful. I am not sure if there is any real way to fix it either. I actually think Atlanta is fairly well designed for what it is. I think a lot of the problem also stems from accidents, construction, and shit driving in the area. I would say a worse area in Atlanta is a few miles into downtown where 75, 85, and 20 all come together in the heart of the city and you have the college, cobb ballpark, and big hotel areas all merge. That is where you have the constant daylight traffic break checks, nightmare lane swapping, and 5-7 lanes of confusion each way all causing crap.
I've been to the ATL airport many times, and the design for getting in and out is flawless. Granted this is assuming you are coming from Augusta and going right back to Augusta. No weird lane crossing/merging required or confusing signs (or lack of signs) or anything else to possibly get wrong. Trust me, if there is a way to misinterpret a sign or directions I will fuck it up. So if I can navigate that trip, anybody can.
Of course, you care coming in via 20 and using the beltway on the east airport side. Coming at the airport that way is pretty easy. The intersection of 20.85.and 75 is inside the beltway right where the cluster of big buildings are, along with cobb center, and the downtown attractions and hotels. You are outside of that mess by a few miles and never get into it. The airport is actually the outer southern edge of all of that crap. It is the lower point of the diamond of doom formed by the beltway, 75, and 85 which has it's southern point right around where 20 comes into contact with 75 and 85 at the college area. I know the area pretty well because dragoncon and momocon are in there. The airport itself is not terribly confusing either. If you get out of the airport's roads and into the neighborhoods in the area it is annoying, but the airport is not too hard to find your way around compared to other airport nightmares. That general area is the worst part of Atlanta overall. The choice between the beltway and the highways inside really comes down to where you are going and the possibilities of a accident causing the beltway to stop. The really bad part of the beltway is the west side between the airport and 75 on the west. That is all under construction, and there is a lot of commercial and packed neighborhoods out there. I think the eastern side is a lot smoother.
bro... nothing terrifies me more this is the laneway behind my 12 unit, 100 year old apartment building. (about 10 miles south of that clusterfuck) this is further down my street and thsi is my building
pretty much true! Most of the bad gridlock/slowdowns are west or north of downtown. I had to go to Smyrna in the summer of 2017 to visit my wife when she was in a mental institution there for a month or so. Glad I don't live in the Atlanta area and have to commute every day!
