Most traffic delays make sense: too many people need the same space to move at the same time. And the slowdowns often occur at sensible peak travel times or behind wrecks and construction. But one delay pops up from time to time, as the WSB Traffic Team and I scour the roads, that has perplexed me for a couple of years.
The feeder ramp that runs from Cobb Parkway and the I-75 ramps to I-285/eastbound (Inner Loop) used to back up very often before the COVID-19 outbreak. I checked it multiple times in the WSB Skycopter and didn’t see any part of that one-lane ramp blocked. I also didn’t see something up on I-285/eastbound ahead of the ramp that would delay it. It was very confusing.
But enough people would use the ramp that it would back up back into the right lanes of I-285/northbound (before it changes directions to eastbound), as more vehicles got in line to take it. Since that feeder ramp is adjacent to the ramps to I-75 in both directions, drivers seeking those ramps would also get caught.
The layout of the backup seemed to indicate that drivers were technically exiting I-285 ... just to re-enter it in the same direction. Making this even more odd is the fact that the regular I-285 lanes were moving far better than this ramp. So why would anyone opt for a slower ramp with one-third of the capacity of the normal freeway on which they were planning to stay?
I chalked this miscalculation to the blind adherence to GPS app directions. I have driven in other cities where the turn-by-turn voice will direct me to make a redundant maneuver when saying “stay straight” would have sufficed. People just followed directions and enough did it at the same time that the shorter route by distance became longer by time.
Taking this feeder ramp does cut a corner and make the diameter of Atlanta’s almost-circular bypass a bit less. Robots making decisions aside from human situational logic would pick the slightly shorter distance. GPS devices work remarkably well, but one fault is that they sometimes require the driver to make extra turns or exits just to save small amounts of time. Sometimes the lack of simplicity isn’t worth that small return on investment.
With so many out-of-towners, especially truck drivers, passing through Atlanta, this slow ramp phenomenon has likely been because of GPS use. And relative newcomers to the Metro Atlanta area probably just follow the turn-by-turn instructions everywhere also. With this being only a single-lane ramp, a slow zone wouldn’t take many motorists making this error. Mix a few of them in with people coming off of Cobb Parkway and I-75 who actually need that ramp and jam now has a quorum.
I’ve lived in Metro Atlanta for 34 years and 245 days, as of the time of this column’s composition. Consequently, I have lived on Planet Earth for the same clip. I’m as native as they come, but I do not drive on this sector of I-285 very often — maybe a few times a year.
On a recent nighttime trip from Vinings back home to Chamblee and without GPS, I came upon this interchange. As my wife, Momo, and I passed Cobb Parkway, I remember thinking, “There are a lot of ramp options to choose here.” The I-285/northbound/eastbound arrows pointed to the left, then the arrows for the I-75/northbound lanes in the middle, then the second right lane was the choice for I-285/eastbound again, and then the far right lane was for I-75/southbound.
I began that I-285/Inner Loop trip by entering from Paces Ferry Road less than two miles before and I had remained in the right lanes. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was committed to only being able to choose that single-lane I-285/eastbound feeder ramp. I had just made the same mistake.
A few elements muddled my decision, such as the drive being at night or that I had entered the freeway in the lane that corresponded with my ramp choice. But some others factored in as well. The I-285 thru-lanes choice on the left also has an I-75 Express Lanes Peach Pass entrance tied to it. I might have made a snap judgment to stay to the right, just because I knew I wouldn’t be exiting left into the toll lanes. That sign might have distracted me from the less-busy I-285/eastbound multi-lane sign I missed.
Those same lanes are also elevated at an incline greater than the I-75 north and south ramps and the I-285 feeder ramp. So the I-285 lanes that make the most sense to continue forward with look like an exit away from the lower-altitude, true exit lanes. This visual could also aid in drivers like myself ending up choosing the feeder ramp instead.
There is no call to action here for the state to do something about this. I’m actually relieved that I found more of an explanation for the strange slow downs on this I-285 feeder ramp in Cobb. And I want anyone reading to have a heads-up to try to stay to the left in this interchange, so you can avoid that sometimes-slow ramp in the future.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. He also hosts a traffic podcast with Smilin’ Mark McKay on wsbradio.com. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
