Hot Rods Driving a hot rod in Atlanta traffic

Driving south on I95 through DC to Fredricksburg is not a fun trip either. It doesnt seem to matter what day or time either.

 

Pious owners pass everyone, they are "green" so speed limits don't matter to them. Even out here in the country

 

All this talk about Atlanta aluminum ladders. No one has mentioned a box spring every 9 miles on 285. With the responses to this post there must be a lot of Georgia folks on here.

 

The 405 on the west side of LA. CA at it's worst.

 

I've driven the cpe though Atlanta, my wifes' cars and even the truck and trailer shown (60 ft length) here loaded with a friends finished 40 pu and a 32 cab. Also been Through OKC, St Louis, Chicago and Minneapolis. A lot of the time the problem is in our heads

 

From my driveway, its a right turn onto my street, then, in about 75' its a left turn at the end of the block, then a right turn at the stop sign onto the right turn lane to the traffic light. That right turn leads you north to the city limits, about a 1/4 mile away. During rush hour (5pm- 6pm Mon-Fri), that trip north out of town is about 2 minutes. Once out of town about a mile is US 20 bypass. There you can travel east towards Rockford (that is a split 4 lane highway) 30 miles away, in about a 1/2 hour, or you can turn west towards Iowa (mostly a 2 lane highway), about 60 miles and you can be there in about an hour. If you choose to keep going north past the bypass, you will be in WI (a 2 lane highway), about 30 miles north, in about a 1/2 hour.

If you want to go across town during rush hour, at the stop sign, you may have to wait until the traffic stopped at the light leaves on the green light because you need to cross over the right turn lane, and two straight through lanes and on to the left turn lane at the light. You will probably have to sit through a red light before you can make that left turn. The trip south out of town takes about 20 minutes during rush hour, or about 6 minutes during non-rush hour. That first traffic light, and the southbound traffic is about the most you will see here. The south end of town is the prime shopping area in town. Once past that somewhat congested prime shopping area going south, the speed limit is 55 mph and you will probably slow down traffic at 55. A traffic jam in Freeport means you may have to wait for the second green light to be on your way, and that shopping area and the main road north or south through town is about the only place you may encounter that traffic jam.

Rather then going east or west on the bypass, you can reach each end of the bypass in either the east or the west by going through town, about 15 minutes either way, which would include about 5 miles of highway driving in each direction.
There are lots of very scenic hard surface back roads to drive in our area. I love it here. Too bad the state government is so screwed up. Gene

 

It's like that where I live but if you encourage the population to decentralize it ends up looking like every other city with the big city mentality.

 

I needed to hear this! I guess I'm getting older and grumpier as I keep noticing the (because they're tailgating me) traffic going well beyond the posted speed limits, not to name all the other traffic laws not being obeyed. I'll quit my bitchin and enjoy our roads in Northern Michigan. Only been through Atlanta a couple times but that's been over 10 years ago.

 

This is the main reason life back in the day was more relaxed and less stressful. And of course, why Atlanta traffic used to be bearable. Used to be you knew several alternate routes that could get you around congestion.
Used to be, flying north out of Hartsfield , you’d notice the urban sprawl ending around Woodstock or Roswell. It was fun to pick out the small towns dotting the woods, Jasper, Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Dawsonville etc. Now the sprawl spreads right to the mountains.
Metro Atlanta 1-2 million folks = just fine.
Metro Atlanta 5-6 million folks = too many people.
O/T to talk about overpopulation here but @56don has hit on the underlying problem for Atlanta traffic, as obvious as this might be.

 

Lived in East Point from 1960 to 2006 moved 50 miles south when retired and now if I go to doc I tell them a noon appointment or no appointment at all.But still hit the Varsity for a change of oil.But now it is not as greasy as it use to be.Will not be in town after 2 pm.But growing up there we went to the Varsity everynight in the 70's.It got worse and worse after the Olympics

 

The thing is, it's always the same guy and always the same ladder!

 

I could have made 2x the money working as a veterinarian near my brother on Long Island compared to here in central PA. It never seemed remotely worth it.

 

A few years ago now, we flew home from New Delhi,India and then drove the Cross Bronx to the George Washington Bridge. We marveled at how clean,quiet and lightly trafficked the highway was. All things are relative, I guess.

 

I made a mistake when You come off the George Washington Bridge you
get on the Major Deaken Pky. to the Triboro Bridge.
and if your Car ever Broke Down ..DO NOT Leave it, make sure Somebody
is buy the Car at All Times!

otherwise the Car will be Striped..!

Just my 3.5 Cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

Hi Danny, its been a while did some thing happen to your station wagon?, i know what you are talking about,Sevierville T N is about crowded as Orlando Fla. Now, all year long.I have trouble driving home from work just in the dark here too.Bruce.

 

It should be easier when everyone else is electric and on the hunt for charging points

 

First world problems...

 

No spaghetti junction traffic here. It was a good commute that day.

 

Big city traffic is always a potential nightmare... I lived in the Chicago and Boston areas in the past... If you head towards Chi-town after 2:30 in the afternoon, you might as well pack a lunch... and if you see a big sedan pulled over on a bridge, throwing something over... DON'T Stop!!!
In Boston, be it the Mass Pike or 128a, if you're doing the speed limit you'll most likely get rear ended. I worked with a guy who, while driving 55, got hit (& run) from behind and ended up in a cranberry bog!

 

“Nashville will be the next Atlanta!”
I heard that years ago and it’s true, as far as traffic.
I-65 and I-24 both are overloaded, and then both merge in to I-40, and reduces to two lanes!
One little miscue from idiots trying to practice their drafting and lane change technique at 80+ and it becomes an hours long parking lot. The town is overrun with idiot drivers!!
So glad that I moved to this small town where a traffic jam is an excruciating 12 car backup in the school zone on Main Street.

 

OH, HELL NO!!!!! There's too much good farmland being turned into mini-ranchettes and sub-divisions now. Developers are buying up land around small farmers for housing and the county commissions are raising taxes on the farm properties and trying to force the farmers off the land. I like to eat too much to see that happen.

 

Chattanooga is another place that can become a bottleneck on almost any day while Friday evening through Sunday traffic is usually at a standstill. If the planner's in Eisenhower's era had thought about anything other than moving large military equipment across the country, they never would have allowed interstate highways to go through any cities at all.

 

I thought this thread was about driving a rod through Atlanta.
I can say yes, I've driven my rod through Atlanta. Oh, a few others also; Austin, Dallas, Toronto, Los Angeles, Detroit, Minneapolis and probably a few more.

Yes, I live very near to Chicago. Is there anyone, anywhere that likes the I80/I94 around the bottom of Lake Michigan?

So, have you driven your ROD through Atlanta?

 

I go the bottom of Chicago quite a bit. Been through there with the cpe a few times, truck and trailer and car. I try to time it early or very late. But I don't go through Chicago unless I have to. I go all the way over to I-35 to go north

 

I worked at the Atlanta airport for 27 years and retired in 2004 . Moved to a small country town in Alabama with two stop lights . Love it, no regrets .

 

After 30 years of Northern and Southern CA traffic Im moving to the country.

I do need to adjust my attitude for the country folks as I tend to be generous with my middle finger and horn (when it works).

 

I have noticed that the bright ass headlights dont help an older guy like me at night. Coming or in rear view . I have a son who lives in down town Nashville, right across from Titans stadium. If I'm going north, I Usually take 231. It takes longer, speeds are a WHOLE lot slower and its pretty country. Call and tell him hey I love you but not fighting that traffic .I do think its because we are getting older though. And yes we are getting older.

 

Caution ! Danny you're comments are sounding like an Old Fart. I'm a member, drive very little after dark anymore, hate big city traffic, I live in a small Up North town in Wisconsin and Winter in Arizona, the traffic here in Az. scary/nuts. Let me know when you're ready to join the club, it's not so bad, Lots of HAMB members. I shopped the country 8 years ago for a mint Magnum RT, found one (gotta have a Hemi) love it, it's another OT hobby car for me to go with my OT Camaro ragtop purchased new 89.