Atlanta's Interstates (Macon, Marietta, Dallas: spring break, real estate, 2014)

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by magnetar

Ever since I started driving around Atlanta, I've wondered if some of the problems on the Downtown Connector couldn't be fixed by a change of signage where I-85 and 75 meet 285. Instead of signing 285 as a "bypass" and showing 85/75 continuing straight ahead, explicitly route all through traffic onto 285 and sign the lanes heading into downtown as "local traffic only." This would cut down on the number of tourists passing through that suddenly find themselves trying to drive through the heart of a major city, reducing overall traffic in general and traffic unfamiliar with the area in particular. I know 285 is congested as it is, but the Connector seems like the more important issue to solve for the sake of those who live or work in the city.

^^^^This...This is not a bad idea at all.

Routing through traffic around a bypass superhighway and off of radial superhighways headed into a Downtown area is also something that was effectively done in the Washington D.C. area where through traffic on ultra-busy Interstate 95 (the busiest transcontinental superhighway along the Eastern Seaboard) was routed onto the eastern portion of the I-495 Capital Beltway by co-signing I-95 onto it so as to prevent heavy volumes of through traffic from driving through the area inside the Beltway on urban roads (freeways and surface streets) that were not designed to handle to even modest volumes of through traffic, much less the extremely-heavy volume of through traffic that uses I-95 along the Eastern Seaboard on a constant basis.

Most (if not all) of the I-285 Perimeter superhighway (most particularly almost all of the increasingly-outmoded and outdated interchanges around the I-285 Perimeter) would have to be rebuilt to handle the increased traffic volumes that would result from signing Interstates 75 and 85 onto the I-285 Perimeter and re-designating and resigning the current ITP portions of Interstates 75 and 85 as "Local Traffic Only", but it most certainly is an idea that should be given serious consideration over the long-term as explicitly re-routing all I-75/I-85 through traffic around the I-285 Perimeter could help alleviate much traffic congestion stress off of an overstressed Downtown Connector.

[gerrythesnake]

Originally Posted by magnetar

Ever since I started driving around Atlanta, I've wondered if some of the problems on the Downtown Connector couldn't be fixed by a change of signage where I-85 and 75 meet 285. Instead of signing 285 as a "bypass" and showing 85/75 continuing straight ahead, explicitly route all through traffic onto 285 and sign the lanes heading into downtown as "local traffic only." This would cut down on the number of tourists passing through that suddenly find themselves trying to drive through the heart of a major city, reducing overall traffic in general and traffic unfamiliar with the area in particular. I know 285 is congested as it is, but the Connector seems like the more important issue to solve for the sake of those who live or work in the city.

No, we need visitors to pass through downtown Atlanta so they can see our pretty skyline

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Lovin, there ain't enough analgesics for that comment... And for heavens sakes, he's implying minorities are worse at figuring out road signs than others? Really? Dumb post of the day.

you said that, buddy, not me.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by gog8rs

To answer OP, the only remotely confusing part about the interstate system here is going north on the connector out of midtown and finding that you need to be in the left lanes to get on 85 and the right lanes to be on 75.

Except there are huge overhead signs and each lane has a painted interstate 75 or 85 marking to help guide you. You've got to be drunk, blind, or stupid to get lost on the connector. Sorry...but that's my opinion.

[gerrythesnake]

I thought that is what a GPS and the traffic map app on your phone was for?

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

^^^^This...This is not a bad idea at all.

Routing through traffic around a bypass superhighway and off of radial superhighways headed into a Downtown area is also something that was effectively done in the Washington D.C. area where through traffic on ultra-busy Interstate 95 (the busiest transcontinental superhighway along the Eastern Seaboard) was routed onto the eastern portion of the I-495 Capital Beltway by co-signing I-95 onto it so as to prevent heavy volumes of through traffic from driving through the area inside the Beltway on urban roads (freeways and surface streets) that were not designed to handle to even modest volumes of through traffic, much less the extremely-heavy volume of through traffic that uses I-95 along the Eastern Seaboard on a constant basis.

Simply pasting a highway sign onto a road doesn't change anything. The reason the DC Beltline is the "through" route was mostly due to the lack of an innercity through-route that didn't involve surface streets until just recently. Slapping 75/85 onto I-285 wouldn't change traffic patterns one bit.

[BackInATL2011]

Our skyline would be very different if these highways were not built this way. Office developers use the statistics of how many cwrs drive by to sell name and advertisement rights on top of these buildings. But its disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

[ElleKaye]

Originally Posted by cqholt

That what bypass means. If passing thru, use the bypass.

I was resistant to the idea of using 285 when I drove up for a visit years ago. The main reason was because even numbers run east and west and odd numbers run north and south. I did not like the idea of 285 running east and west in addition to north and south; it felt like a glitch in the matrix so my level of trust for getting to my destination was low. At the time, I did not realize it was not an actual interstate but a big circle.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by ElleKaye

I was resistant to the idea of using 285 when I drove up for a visit years ago. The main reason was because even numbers run east and west and odd numbers run north and south. I did not like the idea of 285 running east and west in addition to north and south; it felt like a glitch in the matrix so my level of trust for getting to my destination was low. At the time, I did not realize it was not an actual interstate but a big circle.

It's strange you got confused, because if you know even numbers run east/west and odd numbers run north/south, then you should know that 3-digit interstates that start with odd numbers are "spurs" [575, 985] and 3-digit interstates that start with even numbers are "bypasses" [285, 675].

[ElleKaye]

Originally Posted by alco89

It's strange you got confused, because if you know even numbers run east/west and odd numbers run north/south, then you should know that 3-digit interstates that start with odd numbers are "spurs" [575, 985] and 3-digit interstates that start with even numbers are "bypasses" [285, 675].

My knowledge was based on road trip summer vacations. Obviously, I felt relatively certain which way I was headed was based on the last digit. Maybe I thought that there could not possibly be only 99 of them so an additional digit had no relevance.

Whether I should have known it or not is debatable, but I am quite pleased to learn that if there are three digits and one begins with an even number, then it is a bypass. Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that I was orignally uncomfortable with east and west direction on 285.

On a different note, can something be considered an interstate that does not extend between states? 285 is moer like what I'd call an intrastate.