New to Nashville/Traffic Advice (I-24) (La Vergne: home, school, calculation)

[uconnhuskies5]

Hi,

Moving to Nashville and I'm trying to decide on a place to live. I already tried out the morning drive, getting on around exit 48 Woodland Street and traveling to exit 57 Haywood Ln. The morning drive was very easy, no traffic at 8 am. I was wondering about the return trip at around 4 or 5 p.m. Google maps says that it should be fine, but I don't necessarily trust that. Advice would be very helpful as soon as possible because I'm trying to finalize my living situation.

[airen123]

I had to look it up, Woodland is east of downtown? 24 traveling to Haywood will be a little congested, but it moves.

[uconnhuskies5]

Yeah, sorry me too. I don't know Nashville that well. The exit that I would be using is east of downtown and the river. It's right around the Titans stadium.

[uconnhuskies5]

Also, does it get considerably worse once school year begins

[IngleDave]

Hey uconn, I do that very commute every day, except I go further out to La Vergne. I do recommend getting on at Woodland as you have more running room to get to the I-24 lanes. If at Shelby, you're fighting traffic going to 65S and they can be very pushy (you have to push harder, but to avoid confrontation, I take the easy way.) Traffic out is rarely a problem. You can look at the other folks on the other side (inbound) to see just how easy you have it.

Coming home is a bit more of a concern, but generally not too bad. There will be the occasional tie-ups and most days a slow down, but exit at Shelby and turn left on 5th to get to Woodland quicker. My problem getting on La Vergne is speed. People are generally nuts on 24 inbound and it's not unusual to hit 90mph just to keep up. Things moderate a bit around Harding to Briley, so watch out entering 24 at Haywood. Get on the exit, and prepare to launch. Move over before you get to Harding as there will be tons of traffic entering the highway. You'll need the left lanes anyway.

You'll figure all this out really quickly. Just cherish your morning commute. It's generally a lovely thing, and I've been doing it for 18 years. If you see a bullet motorcycle coming up behind you doing 120 (which happens), just stay your course, don't change lanes or alter speed. He'll navigate around you. Do nothing to skew his mental calculations. Just stay put. He nuts, but we don't want to kill him.

[GWoodle]

Originally Posted by airen123

I had to look it up, Woodland is east of downtown? 24 traveling to Haywood will be a little congested, but it moves.

Woodland is the street/bridge closest to Titans stadium. It closes very often on Game Days. For your commute it should be fine except for the 1-2 times a year the Titans get an evening game (Monday Nite). That section is likely to be very busy on game days. For an alternate you may have to use Briley Parkway to Ellington to get back into the area. You can pick up Briley near the Airport from I-24.

Exit 49 takes you to Shelby St & the new Korean Veterans Blvd. Shelby St has a pedestrian only bridge over the Cumberland into downtown. When the new Convention Center is finished, the Korean Veterans Blvd will connect to more of the south downtown streets.

It appears most days commuting from Woodland to Haywood will be fine. The exception would be rain days or snow days before TDOT does their work.