i had to go back to NC for business for Mom n Dad. Traffic on a Friday from Temple to Tuscaloosa AL was almost non existent . then today i went from there to Chattanooga TN and over to Franklin NC, traffic was the same almost not there...

what's going on? there were big trucks on the road but not many cars

I can promise you don’t want to try I59/24/75 thru Chattanooga during the week. It can take as much as an hour to do the 12 miles or so either direction

we're in a recession, but nobody wants to say anything yet. The stock market is doing well, but everything else is slow and the lower class and middle class are strapped.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
we're in a recession, but nobody wants to say anything yet. The stock market is doing well, but everything else is slow and the lower class and middle class are strapped.

maybe, can say guns sales are good as are the gunshows I do in state,


however,

I can say my drive to Wytheville a couple of weeks ago was not horrible, almost 4 hrs, with about an hour on I81,, which generally sucks balls esp thru Roanoke/Salem

but then again it was Friday AM (left home about 8, hit Roanoke about 2.5 hrs later) and Monday AM, so not peak times for traffic,

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I can promise you don’t want to try I59/24/75 thru Chattanooga during the week.

How long have they been working on that project near the I-75/24 junction? At least 3 years, if not more. And the I-24 section west of 75 (which clings to the side of a mountain ridge and is curvy) is still congested. (I go to Camp Jordan Arena sometimes.)

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

I can promise you don’t want to try I59/24/75 thru Chattanooga during the week.

How long have they been working on that project near the I-75/24 junction? At least 3 years, if not more. And the I-24 section west of 75 (which clings to the side of a mountain ridge and is curvy) is still congested. (I go to Camp Jordan Arena sometimes.)

Seems like forever The current Phase 2 started in Spring 2023. The addition of the first overpass started I think in 2021. If you go to Camp Jordan, you would be familiar with that and the opportunity to get creamed by traffic merging onto I75S as you make for the East Ridge exit. That is not improved and may even be more dangerous.

Getting past that bottleneck is only the first hurdle if you're continuing on I24. You still have to get from there to I59 which is always congested and can easily take 30 min+.

The section of I24 around the bend in the river (Moccasin Bend) is slated for an expansion sometime in the next few years. You think I75/24 is bad? Just wait - you ain't seen nothin' yet.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

I can promise you don’t want to try I59/24/75 thru Chattanooga during the week.

How long have they been working on that project near the I-75/24 junction? At least 3 years, if not more. And the I-24 section west of 75 (which clings to the side of a mountain ridge and is curvy) is still congested. (I go to Camp Jordan Arena sometimes.)

I lived there 1987-1993. They were working on it then, too.....

If traffic flow is an indicator of a recession then we're in a major economic boom in our area!

A lot of factors I think at play here.

Around here things have still not been the same traffic-wise since Covid and I think a lot of people still do WFH and that affects traffic or lack thereof. There are days I think I'll hit a ton of traffic leaving work and I sail right through, other days it brutal bumper-to-bumper.

4/10 schedules are becoming more and more a thing too which means people work M-Thur and have every Friday off and aren't on the roads going to or from work.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
If traffic flow is an indicator of a recession then we're in a major economic boom in our area!

That’s what I was going to write!
I just drove up from N.C. to VA on I-81 and there were almost as many commercial trucks as there were private vehicles…all doing 75 mph!

School started.

I’d say just wait till school starts. Mom will be clogging the way to the best of her ability.

Ok I drove back the same route yesterday. Left at 0700 EST. Took 2.5 hrs to get to Chattanooga and it was not too bad considering folks were still going to work and it is the joining of I75& I40 . But once I got thru town and down on to I59, traffic was like the few days before. Very few cars, lots of trucks.

I didn’t hit any traffic snarls until I got to Longview TX on I20 but a semi had run off the road and I had to wait 30 mins.

Went around Dallas bc the toll road I usually take was closed for construction. So traffic there was what you would expect with idiots running 100 and weaving thru traffic…but again once I got onto south I35 towards Waco it thinned out.

I did see six small pickups towing two trailers each with everything they owned headed south. They were in a caravan and I can only assume they were self deporting as I’ve seen this before just after Trump got elected and began deportation.

If this is due to illegals leaving or being deported I’m ALLLL for it. Long live the Republic

BTW I did drive all 1006 miles in one day.

Yes that was crazy.

Ford makes one comfortable chair in the F150.