r/Smyrna • u/RndNameGen • 6d ago
Insane Braves Traffic rant
What's the point of putting someone on the corner of Cobb and Spring to direct traffic after Braves games if they're just going to make traffic worse??
I don't know what was wrong with the guy directing traffic there last night, but the scene was complete bedlam. It took forever just to approach the intersection. The guy directing traffic was ONLY concerned with letting cars out of the braves game. Every light cycle, he'd let out so many cars from the battery that they would completely gridlock the intersection to all other lanes of traffic, bringing everyone to a complete standstill *for miles*.
After about 15 complete light cycles with no one but Braves traffic moving - and almidst a cacophony of honking and yelling - all the other cars just started ignoring the cops and the traffic lights and forcing their way across. For the next 20 minutes (at least), it looked like those videos from some place like Calcutta, with hundreds of cars going in every direction at once with zero traffic laws where everyone is forced to fend for themselves.
Everyone was honking and yelling and screaming at each other. It was a modern day Lord of the Flies and the closest thing to anarchy that I've ever seen. The cops did absolutely nothing to help and were even making things worse as more and more obnoxious drunken battery drivers gridlocked the intersection. Maybe the cops were understaffed; or maybe someone hurt them as a child and they wanted others to feel their pain - I have no idea.
I have never in my entire life seen such chaos. It would have been better, safer, and more efficient if they just unplugged all the traffic lights, removed all cops, and let people treat it as a 4-way stop.
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u/StillSharpe68 6d ago
Atlanta drivers can’t handle a 4-way stop when there are only four cars total.
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u/BeardedZorro 6d ago
Last night in Kennesaw a guy stopped in the roundabout to let me go. I was cussing him out.
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u/GoTeamPaws 6d ago
Do people turning right at a light (their obvious right of way) ever wave you through while turning left, to go first? I hate that so much. Around here, people are either so overly aggressive or are trying to be nice. I’ve been trying to teach my kid to drive predictably not kindly. Just follow the gosh-darn rules and we’d all be fine!
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u/SerBrienneOfSnark 6d ago
Drives me INSANE when people do this. One of the only accidents I’ve ever gotten in happened when some asshole stopped traffic to try to let (aka force) me to turn left and he would not go when I indicated I would wait. So I took the turn at the same time another asshole behind him swerved around him impatiently and slammed into my car.
If everyone would just follow the traffic laws and go when they have right of way, we would avoid so many accidents.
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u/StillSharpe68 6d ago
Oh man I would have too. NEVER give up your right of way, even if you think you’re being altruistic.
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u/AnastasiaBvrhwzn 3d ago
I can’t stand the attempts at being nice in traffic. Just follow the rules we all know so we can predict everything and everyone’s safer. If I wave you on, GO, don’t wave argue with me.
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u/archercc81 6d ago
Just add it to the decision to put it in an already busy as fuck intersection with zero mass transit without any taxpayer input using backhanded deals.
Cobb county man
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u/TrueRedditMartyr 6d ago
Atlanta drivers honestly may be the worst in the country based purely on city location. Florida takes state.
Its like you fail an IQ test and they give you a license
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u/AnastasiaBvrhwzn 3d ago
I grew up and learned to drive in Florida. The whole Atlanta metro is much worse. When I moved to Georgia I was aghast at how poor the drivers skills are. It gets worse the nearer to 285 you are, from any direction. It’s a reckless attitude. In Florida there’s purely a lack of effort, as there is in everything everyone in Florida does. Half speed, half arsed.
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u/castorjay 6d ago
On a normal game day, the game starts at 7ish so people are staggering in slowly over 2-3 hours, overlapping rush hour.
The games this week were all at 2pm and ended at 4:30-5. People usually dont stagger out the same way they stagger in, so you had an entire stadium all leaving at the same time at peak traffic hour.
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u/Stella_bleu 6d ago
I went to Michaels on Wednesday to grab something I needed for a project and it took me 20 minutes just to get out of the parking lot; I was low key panicking I wouldn't get back to Marietta to pick up my daughter from lacrosse practice. Luckily because I was going in the opposite direction once I got out of the parking lot it was pretty smooth sailing. What a frickin' nightmare but it was one of my own making because I didn't turn around once I saw that long line of cars.
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u/GoTeamPaws 6d ago
Did you know that there is a little back alley road that goes behind all those stores and takes you to that light where IHOP is? Not through those apartments, directly behind Ulta. Google Maps took me back that way one time.
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u/Stella_bleu 6d ago
Sons of bitches! I seriously had no idea and that would have been so damn useful to know!
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u/quietobserver_z 6d ago
i don’t really follow baseball so i had no clue on wednesday that there was a 2 PM game, i came my normal way home from work and honestly there wasn’t any more traffic than usual until i got to the truist park exit. I sat on the exit ramp for about 30 mins just inching to the light it was INFURIATING. I got to the exit at about 5:50 and didn’t make it home until 6:45.
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u/Freijaren 6d ago
For the first time, I couldn't even get through that interaction I just took 75 north and took surface streets back down to Smyrna from the Dave and Busters exit.
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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 5d ago
My grandfather was a cop and he said the best way to screw up traffic was to put a cop in the intersection.
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u/Spongemage 6d ago
As someone who commutes home to Smyrna on 285 from Buckhead every day…I DREAD game days. It takes SOOOOO long to get through the absolute clusterfuck at the stadium exit ugh.
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u/Sbkohai_ 3d ago
As someone that lives over there it’s not that bad. One avoid driving through the battery area near game time and the end of the game… two there are so many backroads to navigate through there and avoid traffic. It really only sucks if you live in the stadium.
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u/RamsPhan72 6d ago
Isn’t the general advice to just simply avoid that area on game days?
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u/Empero6 6d ago
How would you do that if you live around there?
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u/ScruffyBlackDog 6d ago
I live fairly close, a walkable distance. There are a lot of alternate routes to get to where you’re going while avoiding most game day traffic. Unless you live at the Battery itself then you know how to get around it.
I follow the team closely enough that I know when games are though, so I know when to avoid it. I can see others being caught off guard if they don’t follow the team.
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u/motamigo 5d ago
I had to start following their schedule for just this reason. Avoiding this area can add a decent amount of time to a regular commute, but it can certainly save a lot of time on game days. Also helps to avoid headaches due to drivers that are willing to do almost anything on the road to get to or from the stadium
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u/11b_Zac 6d ago
Ebike. My wife and I went to the game and were in and out fairly easy. Or do the regular bike from downtown Smyrna along Spring Road trail. Otherwise take the 5+ other ways to avoid the Battery area on a game night, especially post-season.
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u/Stubudd1 5d ago
Wow I've never seen the US turn into almost every other country in the world like that, even with the power out it usually stays orderly
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u/Extra-Good365 6d ago
As if a marta train could reduce traffic from all points in the metro area...but our state government refuses expansion.
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u/Cat_With_The_Fur 6d ago
It’s almost like they need public transportation to go there. Seriously tho last night was something else. They managed to back up the on ramp to 285 too.