Avoiding Atlanta

I have ranted about the roads, construction & traffic in and around Atlanta before! I Agree US 27 on the west of Atlanta is a good alternative, on the east I take 129 or 441. As stated before you may get thru Atlanta a little quicker using I-85 / 75, but pulling a fiver the alternatives are so much more enjoyable! Good luck!

If you are going South from I85 to I75 avoid Atlanta by taking US441 at the Commerce exit, then in Madison take GA83 to Forsyth and on to I75. All very good roads.

Great post americanrascal. Thanks for the alternate route.

Anything requiring routes east of I-75 in the Atlanta metro area is tough. Having lived in and around the Atlanta metro area and north Georgia most of my life and RVing east of Atlanta for years my sense has been its just hard road anyway you cut it. Best just to catch it during non commute hours. I-285 around the east side is marginally tolerable during off peak hours.

The good news is for north- south travel on I-75 (or west of that corridor) there is an excellent west side total bypass of Atlanta in place from Calhoun, GA, to Rome, Carrollton, LaGrange,Columbus, Albany and tifton. 4 lane and highway speeds all the way. Only a few stop lights along the way.Nice spacing of towns and services. Its the best kept secret in this state and few folks are aware of it. I've timed it running using the Atlanta 285 corridor and this US 27 route and it comes out too close to call. But the west US 27 bypass is sooooo much more relaxed and easy for RVing.

The route uses much of the new and upgraded US 27 /Georgia 1 corridor. On the north end one connects with I-75 at GA 53 which connects in Rome with US 27 (Ga 53- to Ga 1 to US 411 to US 27 for the truck bypass around Rome). Then one can take US 27 south to LaGrange and connect with I-185 to Columbus/Ft Benning. At Ft Benning enter US 280/GA 520 to Cusseta and the either US 27 to Tallahassee or continue on US 280/Ga520 to I-75 through Albany to Tifton. We are now using this route almost exclusively to get around Atlanta and move north/south through Georgia.At LaGrange one can catch I-85 and move southwest towards the Gulf as an option also.

I'm sorry it may not be of much help to the OP if for some reason you must stop in on the east side of Atlanta. But if your route is exclusively to Foley, It will work if you would explore using I-40 to Knoxville, then I-75 to Calhoun, GA. Exit Calhoun and follow the US 27 route to LaGrange and pick up I-85 south to Montgomery then I-65 south .

Wanted to throw this out there to make sure you were aware of this alternative

Halmfamily wrote:
Heading through Atlanta tomorrow and will be on I20,I75 and I85.

We are doing this in about half an hour. I'll let you know how it goes...

Atlanta can be rough that is for sure. However, I have found the best time to go through Atlanta to be between the times of 10 PM and 12 AM... That was much easier when my kids were very small. And now that I'm a little older and so are they I just Grin and bear it. I tend to try to go through Atlanta around 10 am or 2 PM.

I once took an alternate route down I 59 in Georgia and down towards I 10 through Alabama. I then took I tin over to 75 and on down. But that added several hours to the trip. It was worth it because the trip was on a Friday afternoon, I had to leave after work with the family, and the traffic was backed up from Atlanta into Chattanooga.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

Can't agree more! We always drove 200 hundred miles out of the way just to avoid Atlanta pulling our TT. The traffic is awful, the drivers are awful, and it is the only city that we encountered multiple near misses due to the crazy drivers. And it doesn't matter what time of day you go through. We were just never in that big of hurry.

might want to do a search for further answers. this issue has been kicked around before.
bumpy

Heading through Atlanta tomorrow and will be on I20,I75 and I85. Will hit Atlanta around 9:00 am heading to Buford pickup my fifth wheel and then back through around 1:00 PM with my fifth wheel. I find if you just get in the middle lanes and go you're fine. Let the idiots run over each other. Just give yourself a mile or so to change lanes if they don't make room, make your own.

I've look at alternate routes but as you've said it takes a lot longer.