Remember Atlanta Envy? It was a regular topic, ad nauseam to some circles of Birmingham conversation, especially in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. “If we had only____, we would be Atlanta today.”
Well, after recently being there for two and a half days and stuck in bumper to bumper traffic more than once, I was reminded just how lucky we are NOT to be Atlanta. Having lived and worked in Atlanta for a summer in the 70’s, I know there are cool neighborhoods as well as great music, art and food; but the traffic, crowds, unending development, concrete, and buildings make me ecstatic we in Birmingham lost out on the airport hubs and the rest.
Birmingham really has it all and in just the right amounts, or almost.
Traffic is one of the banes of growth that Birmingham is struggling to solve and that Atlanta has purportedly. However, the packed feeder roads to Atlanta’s beltway and even the beltway itself, can tell a different story.
Several years ago not having much choice about departure time, I received a swift memory kick to never leave Atlanta (or really any city) during rush hour. Like our Interstate -459, Atlanta’s perimeter highway, I-285, is designed to quickly move traffic around the city. Maybe that was initially true, but on this rush hour day, with no accident in sight, it took me well over an hour on I-285 West to travel about 25 miles.
So on a recent Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m., Eastern Time, I left Atlanta happy to be heading home with not a thought that traffic could be a problem. I was sure to be home early enough to make a potluck dish for a 6:30 dinner.
My tooling along to a CD recently bought at a concert at Bottletree was rudely interrupted by one of those electronic traffic message signs. Whereas Birmingham’s new digital highway signs are more generic safety announcements than anything else, in Atlanta, the data can mean the difference between extra unplanned hours on the road or a fairly timely arrival at your destination.
So when the early warning system sign beamed, “90 minute delay,” my high speed didn’t lend itself to figuring out Plan B. I had to wait till the traffic came to a halt.
When a long travel delay is your fortune, a resource check is in order. Number one, how’s the gas? Sure glad you filled the tank before departure. Bathroom emergency? Ha, you are out of luck. Baby on board? Hope it’s naptime. Children? Hope that bag of snacks is still under the seat.
While uncomfortably ensconced like so many sardines, I cursed my bad luck but was thrilled to get notice of an upcoming exit. That’s when Veronica, my GPS buddy, and I began plotting our escape from this black hole, and we were lucky. It took 10 minutes to move from the left lane to the backed up exit lane. Then almost another 30 minutes to exit. At least I was moving.
If there’s a silver lining to this tale – and I’m always on the look-out for those – it’s that this exit, number 15, was also for the Silver Comet Trail. Once away from Atlanta traffic, the interesting and often beautiful stretches I traveled along U.S. 278 slowed and calmed me down. Frequently cruising alongside the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Rails to Trails pathway, I caught sight of bicyclers, walkers, and one family backpacking with 2 young children.
From historic little Cedartown, Ga. to Piedmont, Alabama and the antique shops in Attalla, there are riches, both inside and out, to be had off-expressway. And yes, you can bike or hike from Jacksonville, Ala. to Atlanta on this lovely trail called Chief Ladiga in Alabama and Silver Comet in Georgia, that takes in wilderness, rural, and small town landscapes alike.
Discovering serendipity amidst a challenge is always a positive. It just turned out that my trip home to Blount County via Highway 278, which was filled with little delights, instead of I-20, was just that — a case of serendipity. The time taken was nearly the same, and I made it to my dinner, potluck in hand. As with all good ironies, I have an Atlanta traffic jam to thank for it!