The Trip Down I-75: City Driving Strategy

[Raineman]

The family and I will be making our first driving trip to WDW via I-75. Is Atlanta the worst city driving we are going to experience? I was planning our departure time solely based on when we would be driving through Atlanta, to hopefully hit that area late at night to avoid any rush hour traffic issues. The only other larger urban areas seem to be Cincinnati, Lexington, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Can I expect any heavy traffic in these areas?

 

[MissingDisney]

Not sure where you're leaving from but there is a lot of construction in Cincy on 75 all the way to the KY border, which can cause major delays. Looks to be a long term project...like years. I would avoid anytime even close to rush hours, if possible. It's a nightmare.

 

[TheMouseFan]

The family and I will be making our first driving trip to WDW via I-75. Is Atlanta the worst city driving we are going to experience? I was planning our departure time solely based on when we would be driving through Atlanta, to hopefully hit that area late at night to avoid any rush hour traffic issues. The only other larger urban areas seem to be Cincinnati, Lexington, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Can I expect any heavy traffic in these areas?

Cincinnati can be brutal! Lexington gets heavy, but we've never run into major delays there. I think there is construction just north of Knoxville that could be a problem. And I have no idea about Chattanooga. We've not done the drive to WDW, but we drive from Dayton to Knoxville every summer. Dayton has a ton of construction right now and could potentially be a big delay also.

 

[unkadug]

The family and I will be making our first driving trip to WDW via I-75. Is Atlanta the worst city driving we are going to experience? I was planning our departure time solely based on when we would be driving through Atlanta, to hopefully hit that area late at night to avoid any rush hour traffic issues. The only other larger urban areas seem to be Cincinnati, Lexington, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Can I expect any heavy traffic in these areas?

Atlanta is pretty notorious for doing road work at night. Just saying.

 

[ekutchey]

Not sure where your starting point is. We just drove from Michigan to Disney along the same route in August. Much of Ohio is under construction on 75. Cincinnati will be a slow go especially if hit during rush hour. For Atlanta we always try to hit at night, just check the sport team schedules so you don't get struck in that traffic. We hit ATL once at 11:00ish pm when a Braves game finished...opps...heavy traffic. But if you have more than two in your car use the HOV lanes through ATL, that will help. Also heads up Kentucky has quite a few rest areas closed for rebuilding, so when you see one and it is open you may wish to stop.

 

[bristol's mom]

To avoid Atlanta, you can always take I-285 West and bypass it.

 

[networkpro]

285 will not get you past the construction on 75 south of the city. From the junction of 675 and 75 to almost Griffin (GA 20) there's heavy construction.

 

[lostpro9het]

Atlanta is only bad between 7-9am and 4:30-7pm during the week. The construction south of the city on 75 is still ongoing but not terrible in terms of traffic, cruised by there this morning on our way to the bubble.

 

[englanddg]

Atlanta is only bad between 7-9am and 4:30-7pm during the week. The construction south of the city on 75 is still ongoing but not terrible in terms of traffic, cruised by there this morning on our way to the bubble.

^^ this. As a fellow ATLian, I can back this up. If you do come through in the waning times of rush hour, take 285 and skip the connector. Longer drive, but shorter times.

 

[englanddg]

To avoid Atlanta, you can always take I-285 West and bypass it.

It doesn't "bypass" all that much anymore...

The real issue will be the 75/285 junction...that whole area is a mess...it makes Spaghetti Junction look friendly, traffic wise, imho...

 

[englanddg]

Not sure where your starting point is. We just drove from Michigan to Disney along the same route in August. Much of Ohio is under construction on 75. Cincinnati will be a slow go especially if hit during rush hour. For Atlanta we always try to hit at night, just check the sport team schedules so you don't get struck in that traffic. We hit ATL once at 11:00ish pm when a Braves game finished...opps...heavy traffic. But if you have more than two in your car use the HOV lanes through ATL, that will help. Also heads up Kentucky has quite a few rest areas closed for rebuilding, so when you see one and it is open you may wish to stop.

Just avoid the connector on Braves or GA Tech game nights. Even if it's faster, the driving is just insane through the connector...crazy people. There's a reason why ATL is ranked in the top 5 worst places to drive in the US.

 

[englanddg]

Atlanta is pretty notorious for doing road work at night. Just saying.

Yeah, GDOT loves to do that...and on odd days when you wouldn't expect massive shutdowns (like weekends)...

 

[englanddg]

The family and I will be making our first driving trip to WDW via I-75. Is Atlanta the worst city driving we are going to experience? I was planning our departure time solely based on when we would be driving through Atlanta, to hopefully hit that area late at night to avoid any rush hour traffic issues. The only other larger urban areas seem to be Cincinnati, Lexington, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Can I expect any heavy traffic in these areas?

ATL will be your only big one, yeah. Chattanooga will have some back up around rush hour as well (I've gotten stuck in 1 - 2 hour traffic jams there coming from Nashville, never from Knox though)...Knoxville will be fine.

As noted, if you are going through ATL, avoid 7a to 10a specifically southbound through the city...evening southbound you'll be fine. Going northbound, avoid it around 3 - 7p. Aim to be north of the city no later than 3p (as in THROUGH the city and outside of 285). Morning you'll be fine northbound as the traffic is all going south for the most part.

 

[JennSmith]

I am from Chicago but we live in Lexington now. I can say that Lexington natives will tell you traffic is awful but if you are used to city traffic then the traffic here is literally nothing. I think Cincy and Atlanta will be your biggest obstacles...pretty much like everyone else is saying Be safe and have tons of fun!!!

 

[Horizons '83]

To avoid Atlanta, you can always take I-285 West and bypass it.

Unfortunately, it really doesn't avoid any traffic. 285 is just as terrible as 85 since all the tractor trailers use it as a bypass as well. Being from Atlanta I can tell you, the only "good" times to drive through town(or the 285 bypass) is from the hours of 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on weekdays. Weekends are crap shoots with the constant construction around the city.

 

[wdwhoneymooner]

We live about 30 miles NE of Atlanta and always leave before 6 am on the weekdays or before 8 on Saturdays when driving down to WDW. Along with the advice from earlier posts, check to see if there are any planned large events in the ATL for the times you plan on driving thru the city. Conventions, college football games, Atlanta Falcons football games, etc. We do take 285 often vs. going thru the downtown connector when events are happening. Although since you'll be traveling with a packed car ( I assume ), you can take advantage of the HOV lane for some of your trip.

 

[UofMGuy423]

I-75 through Ohio is basically a never ending construction zone, especially in Dayton. We just traveled from Detroit to Knoxville and Ohio was bad. I don't recall much of anything of issue in Kentucky or Tennessee.

 

[LAKid53]

Just expect there to be construction SOMEWHERE on I-75. We drove down for the 4th of July weekend this year for a visit to that other park in Orlando (lol) from North Florida. So they picked the night before the start of a long holiday weekend to commence road work. For miles. Started several miles before Gainesville. Turned I-75 into a parking lot since they closed 2 of the 3 lanes. Added 1 hour to our trip. The bonus? Once we got past the construction and all lanes were open, there was very little traffic ahead of us so we made up some time. Still got to our hotel at Uni after midnight.

Yeah, driving through Atlanta on I-75 is a pain. There is always construction. And the bypass adds time to your trip. Just make sure you have a full tank of gas before you get to the metro Atlanta area and fill up as soon as you cross the Florida border and find a station with a reasonable rate. There are two areas of congestion on I-75 on the way to the Florida turnpike. The first, around Gainesville, mainly thanks to the University of Florida and the insane student drivers who text while going 80 mph. The other is Ocala. No idiotic students but still traffic. And the split off to the Turnpike is crazy due to the drivers who suddenly realize they are in the turn off lane and they want to continue to Tampa on I-75.

My suggestion once you get onto the Florida Turnpike is to take the exit (think it's 267A or B) to 429, rather than continuing on the Turnpike to I-4 (a real nightmare for those who've never driven on it.) Once you get off the Turnpike onto 429, it's about 20 minutes to the entrance to WDW on Western Way. Which dumps straight into Buena Vista Blvd. Take this advice from a Florida resident who makes the trip every 1-2 months. Avoid taking the Turnpike to I-4 to WDW route. It takes us a little under 4 hours to drive from my house to WDW (my daughter can make it in a little over 3 hours, but she's probably exceeding the speed limit).

 

[Raineman]

Wow, thanks to everyone for the tips. Just for a bit of background, we will be coming from London, Ontario, which is about a 2 hour drive east from the US/Canada border in Detroit. Also, we will be making our way down for the 28th of February next year, which should let us avoid sporting event traffic in Atlanta-the Braves don't open until early April, and the Falcons are done by then (although the Hawks will still be playing). If we leave home mid-morning, we shouldn't be reaching Atlanta until well after midnight. One question that I have is that of construction-I realize Michigan and Ohio probably won't have much construction in the winter, but what about Kentucky, Tenn, Georgia and Fla? Also, under normal winter weather conditions, is it safe to say that we shouldn't expect any heavy snow once we get into Kentucky?

 

[LAKid53]

Wow, thanks to everyone for the tips. Just for a bit of background, we will be coming from London, Ontario, which is about a 2 hour drive east from the US/Canada border in Detroit. Also, we will be making our way down for the 28th of February next year, which should let us avoid sporting event traffic in Atlanta-the Braves don't open until early April, and the Falcons are done by then (although the Hawks will still be playing). If we leave home mid-morning, we shouldn't be reaching Atlanta until well after midnight. One question that I have is that of construction-I realize Michigan and Ohio probably won't have much construction in the winter, but what about Kentucky, Tenn, Georgia and Fla? Also, under normal winter weather conditions, is it safe to say that we shouldn't expect any heavy snow once we get into Kentucky?

There's always construction somewhere along the Florida portion of I-75.....