Commute from Douglasville (Atlanta, Fairburn: new home, living in, shop)

[cee100]

Hi....I'm from Baltimore and I am thinking of looking at new housing in the Douglasville area. Can anyone give me any idea as to how long it would take, on an average basis, to commute into Atlanta?

Thanks for your help!

[JodyH48]

The difficulty of the commute depends on what part of Douglas County you will be living in and where in metro Atlanta you will be working.

In general, if you live in the northern half of Dougals County, and work anywhere around or north of I-20 in Atlanta, you will use I-20. The bottleneck on 20 is crossing the Chattahoochee River and getting to I-285 about 3 miles east of the River. Once you get there, in the morning, you are generally close to speed limit either going into downtown, or north on 285 up to I-75. If you go into downtown, you'll probably hit a backup about a mile or two before the I-20/I75/85 interchange. Once you get on 75/85, going north, traffic fluctuates day to day; going south, generally it's speed limit.

If you are going to live in the south half of the County, your best bet is to cross the Chattahoochee on either Hwy. 92 or Hwy 166 and then go north on Fulton Industrial Boulevard (1st major intersection after crossing the river-maybe 2 miles from the bridge) to I-20, then east to I-285.

Coming home in the afternoon, if you are coming south on I-285, I can only pray for you. It may be backed up all the way to I-75. Worst place in metro Atlanta in the afternoons.

If you are coming from either the south on I-285, or west from downtown, you'll hit a little slow traffic where the southbound i-285 entrance ramp to i-20 is (between 285 & Fulton Ind. Blvd.) and you may hit another slowdown approaching Fairburn Road in Douglasville.

Other things to consider are that you will be looking straight into the sun on the way in in the morning and also on hte way out in the afternoon, especially in the winter. A good thing, however, is that at least half the traffic goes away on days that you have to work and the state and/or federal government have holidays. Lots of government employees in Douglas County.

Hope this helps. I lived there for 20 years.

[cee100]

Wow.....you did a great job with detail! Thanks so much for your help

[southernguyGA]

Originally Posted by cee100

Wow.....you did a great job with detail! Thanks so much for your help

Commute around Atlanta and into Atlanta is simular to 695 around Baltimore, yep sorry bad rush hour, I like that area myself, Douglasville is nice in my book, good shopping, Close enough to Atlanta, but far enough to be in the Country. B'more for around 30years, Atlanta Area 10 years. LOL
I'm a southerner, all the way my heart is south of the mason Dixon Line and I love Ga very much!

[cee100]

Thank you so much SouthernGuyGa,
In the back of my mind I was wondering how this all compared to 695 Baltimore rush hour! (which is not pretty) Your comments put it all in perpective. As long as I know that it's somewhat comparable to Baltimore, I might be able to deal with it. If you have any other info with regards to this area, please shoot it my way (good new home developments, ect) I was just in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago with my realtor, but we ran out of time and I never made it to Douglasville.

Thanks!!!!!