Traffic jams and airplanes

What is the number one thing that people familiar with Atlanta will tell you about Atlanta when they hear that's where you are moving to? That the traffic is terrible! I can't tell you how many times I heard this bit of advice, more like warning, from people. I believed them, but really, what city doesn't have traffic problems? Now that I'm here, I can officially tell you it sucks more than most other cities!


First off, many of the highways are 12 lanes wide. Second, most of the time all of those lanes are filled with vehicles. I tend to stay in lanes closest to the right hand side so I don't miss my exit and because with all those lanes and cars it gets a little overwhelming to be in the middle of the traffic nightmare. Of course rush hour(s) is really bad, and we are very lucky that Rob's office is only about 8 miles away from our apartment in the less busy direction, but even when it's 2pm on a Tuesday the highways are busy. Where is everyone going all the time?

Once you get over the amount of traffic, you have to get use to ramp meters and pace vehicles. Ramp meters are basically traffic lights at on-ramps that try to regulate the amount of traffic entering the highway by flashing alternating red and green signals. Only 1 vehicle per green light is supposed to merge onto the highway. Not long ago, we were stuck behind a pace vehicle going below the speed limit after picking Rob up from work. It's a good thing Rob has better distance vision than I do, because he was able to read the flashing sign above the truck that read 'Do not pass pace vehicle.' Besides the efforts to regulate traffic volume and congestion, the worst are all of the accidents! I honestly do not know if I have ever driven on the highway without seeing cars pulled over on the side of the road (or just blocking lanes of traffic) due to cars running into each other. I won't even get into what Rob would say is the biggest problem with driving in Atlanta...the abundance of idiotic, careless, inexperienced drivers who do whatever they want whenever they want.

And today, only 10 miles away from our apartment, Atlanta motorists had to deal with a plane landing on the highway! I'm not really surprised this happened in Atlanta- with everything else wrong with the traffic situation why not add a random plane landing into the mix? But I am surprised that there was enough room for the plane to land without hitting another vehicle. Hats off to that pilot!