Which is the best AM time to pass thru Atlanta coming from Nashville?

[Nollymer]

Good morning:

My family and I believed that if we leave at 3:30am from Nashville, TN we will avoid Atlanta morning traffic! Is that accurate? Suggestions are welcome!

Gracias

[glc]

Welcome to RTA!

Can we have more details on the whole trip, such as where you are starting and where you are going?

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

It's about 250 miles from Nashville to Atlanta, which means roughly 4 hours. If you leave at 3:30 in the morning, you'll be arriving in Atlanta at 7:30 am. If this were me, we'd leave a little later, in order to swing around Atlanta after morning rush. It's the way we travel.

But knowing the details will help us get a better picture and give you more pertinent advice.

Donna

[AZBuck]

If you were to plan to leave Nashville at 3:30 AM, here's what I think would happen. You'd likely be a few minutes late in your departure, then the drive that your mapping software said would take four hours would take more like four and a half, and you'd hit Atlanta at 8:00 AM - at the absolute worst of morning rush hour. Here's why. Trips almost never start on time. There's always the last minute 'gotcha' and this will be especially true in your sleep-deprived state at 3:00 AM when you are trying to get ready. Then there's the drive time. Your software assumes that you are starting already on the freeway in downtown Nashville, that you can and will drive at or above the speed limit for every second you are on the road, and that you will never have to stop anywhere along the way - not for food, not for gas, not even for a bathroom break. If everything went right with your plan, you'd get to downtown Atlanta at 7:30 AM, hardly a traffic-free period itself, and every tiny bit of delay puts you in worse traffic, causing more delays, putting you in still worse traffic, causing....

Your best bet, I would think, is to sleep in another couple of hours and leave around 5:00-5:30 AM. That would get you out of Nashville before its rush hour starts and have you driving through or around Atlanta in the mid morning between its rush hour and lunch time. You'd also be a bit more rested and in better shape to make, and enjoy, the drive.

AZBuck

[Nollymer]

Good morning:

My family and I believed that if we leave at 3:30am from Nashville, TN we will avoid Atlanta morning traffic! Is that accurate? Suggestions are welcome!

Gracias

Goin towards St. Augustine!