Officials at the National Park Service’s Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site argue that it would be easier for tourists on the Downtown Connector southbound to find the site via exit 248C, instead of the current exit, 248D.
Here is a look at how a driver would get to the National Historic Site’s parking lot from each exit:
248D (J.W. Dobbs Avenue/Edgewood Avenue)
Take exit on to Jesse Hill Drive.
Make a left on Auburn Avenue.
Take Auburn about five blocks to Jackson Street.
Make a left on Jackson Street.
At the second light, make a right on John Wesley Dobbs Avenue.
Arrive at parking lot.
248C exit (Freedom Parkway)
Take exit.
Drive down Freedom Parkway.
Make a right on Boulevard.
Right on John Wesley Dobbs Avenue.
Arrive in the parking lot.
More than 700,000 visitors manage to find the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site each year — no thanks to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
That’s the view of the National Park Service, which owns and operates the historic site. Park officials are asking GDOT to rework signage on the Downtown Connector to help drivers more easily find the neighborhood that nurtured America’s greatest civil rights hero.
“Tourists complain all the time that they can’t find us off I-75/85,” said Judy Forte, the National Park Service superintendent of the site. “Or they miss the exit completely.”
Forte is lobbying GDOT to to one of two things: move its signage to a more visible location off of the current southbound exit, J.W. Dobbs Avenue/Edgewood Avenue; or direct tourists to take the Freedom Parkway exit instead, giving them a less complicated route to the historic site’s parking lot.
GDOT is considering the request. “We met with them and rode around with them to look at it,” said Mike Lobdell, a district traffic engineer for highway agency. “They have a point.”
Considered one of the most congested stretches of interstate in the United States, Atlanta’s Downtown Connector carries over 250,000 cars a day. That volume increases to nearly 300,000 along the busiest stretch: between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Edgewood.
Ivy Mills, who commutes daily from her job in Sandy Springs to her home in the Old Fourth Ward, takes the Freedom Parkway exit (248C).
“If you are not paying attention to exactly where you going, especially during rush hour, it can get very confusing down there,” Mills said. “If I don’t get into the right lane soon enough, it is really hard to get in and get off. So sometimes I miss the exit completely.”
Candler Park resident JJ Getz commutes daily from Candler Park to a job outside the Perimeter. She just moved here from Charlotte; that city’s traffic complaints now amuse her.
“The first few weeks, as a newly initiated Atlantan, it was terrifying,” she said. “When I get on 75, I get in the same lane the whole time, because it is the closest and takes me all the way to my exit and I don’t ever have to change lanes. The reason it works is I am familiar with it now. But for tourists or people traveling through, it would be frustrating, because it was for me.”
Getz said she sees “near-wrecks every single day as drivers are vying for lane space in what they hope will be the proper lane for their exit.”
According to GDOT, there are 30 exits (15 in each direction) from Lakewood Avenue to the I-75/85 split, a distance of 7.4 miles.
“Which makes it difficult to get signs properly spaced,” Lobdell said. “It is tough and a matter of, ‘Where can we fit a new sign?’ We are working with the park service to get this accomplished.”
Driving southbound, the designated exit for the historic site is Dobbs/Edgewood (248D).
Six months ago, GDOT put up a new sign, which is bigger than the old one. But Forte said it’s too close to the overpass and can sneak up on a driver, leaving little or no time to react.
“You don’t see the sign until you are there. And once you get off, you can’t find us,” Forte said. “The parking situation is tight and visitors get confused at how to find our parking lot. And my other concern is with the (soon-to-open Atlanta) streetcar: We are directing motorists into that traffic. So it can be very hectic.”
Exit 248C , Forte said, gives drivers better access to the parking facility, while avoiding the streetcar. “The simplest and easiest way to get to the parking lot is to take 249C instead of D,” he said.
GDOT officials said no decision has been reached on whether the sign will be moved or the exit shifted.
About the Author
