The three-year anniversary of Atlanta traffic legend Captain Herb Emory’s death fittingly fell just two days before the intersection of two major Atlanta traffic nightmares. Atlanta was already bracing for the impact of SunTrust Park’s opening in the busy I-75/I-285 interchange in Cobb Friday. There was even more trepidation of the park’s opening as people have been flocking to the Perimeter to avoid the catastrophic I-85 bridge collapse for the last two weeks. The potential for paralyzing gridlock getting to the Braves home opener seemed inevitable.
But, whether intentional or not, application of Captain Herb’s Three C’s thwarted another episode of traffic-geddon. They are caution, courtesy and common sense. Captain Herb would champion this alliterative adage in times of commuting strife, to remind people to chill out and make the best, safest decision. Early returns indicate that is exactly what happened on Friday’s commute.
WSB’s Smilin’ Mark McKay had the Skycopter over the morning commute, which was easily the lightest of the week, as Fridays often are. The Good Friday observance meant even more people took off from work and lightened the road load. The busiest time on the Atlanta roads was the lunch hour and early afternoon, when I-285 filled up faster than a Wal-Mart in the wee hours of Black Friday. Delays permeated all directions of the Perimeter anywhere north of I-20, especially. But I-285 never really hit critical mass and the backups tapered off as the Braves commute really started.
By 4:30 or 5 p.m., both I in the WSB Skycopter and Jason Durden in NewsChopper 2 watched as most I-285 traffic getting to I-75 in Cobb fizzled out. Some of the side roads near SunTrust Park — Interstate North Parkway, Windy Ridge Parkway and Circle 75 Parkway — did fill in some, but they weren’t awful. Cobb Parkway, Windy Hill Road and Powers Ferry Road never really got that bad.
The post-game crush was not bad either. WSB Home Fix-It Show host Dave Baker told me his commute from the ballpark to his abode in Conyers took only 50 minutes. That is a very modest delay.
Including Durden and Ashley Frasca on Channel 2, WSB deployed six different traffic reporters on the commute and traffic guru Mark Arum hosted a traffic-centric show from nearby Chuy’s to bump that total to seven. We prepared for the worst and so did Atlantans. You did a wonderful job Friday, just as you did that first Monday after Spring Break in navigating the I-85 collapse. However, do not get lulled into complacency.
After this weekend’s series, the Braves play four-straight 7:35 p.m. games Monday through Thursday. As good as this past Monday’s rush hour was getting around the I-85 collapse, Tuesday through Thursday were horrendous. More people went back to work, more people wrecked and more gridlock transpired. We must learn to continue to treat these early Braves games with similar caution to the home opener.
Captain Herb looked down proud on Atlanta after Friday’s successful bullet-dodging. He anticipated in 2013 that the new Braves commute would not be as bad as we predicted, if both the public and the government applied his Three C’s. We did Friday - let’s do it about 90 more times this year. Yes, I’m accounting for the playoffs. Call it optimism.
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