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US 78 Reversible Lanes Going Away

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This entry was posted on 9/14/2007 9:59 PM and is filed under uncategorized.

Since 1989, the stretch of US 78/GA 10 from East Park Place Boulevard near Stone Mountain to Scenic Highway (GA 124) in Snellville has had a reversible lane system in place. As far as I know, this approximately 7 mile (12 km) stretch of road is the longest reversible lane system in the Southeast.

Between 5 (or 6) AM and 10 AM, the system allows 3 lanes of westbound traffic, and for the rest of the time, there are 3 lanes of eastbound traffic. The 2 middle "reversible lanes" are marked with broken double-yelllow lines.

Finally, the Georgia DOT is getting ready to embark on a $31,000,000 project to eliminate the reversible lane system and convert this stretch to a 6-lane divided highway with sidewalks, giving it more of a parkway-type look. As soon as I learn more about this, I'll let y'all know.

Years ago, I used to live in Snellville (in fact, it's my hometown) and I drove this segment to and from work every day for many years. This reversible lane system, when it was implemented 18 years ago, was to be more of a "temporary" solution, but "temporary" can sometimes be a very arbitrary thing.

When the construction is completed (I believe that GDOT mentioned 2009), it will hopefully cut down on the number of accidents that have happened as a result of those reversible lanes, since it will have defined left-turn lanes and drivers would no longer have to worry about a confused driver heading toward them.

This has been years overdue and I am happy that it will finally be fixed.

This afternoon at 5 PM Eastern time, I will be doing another episode of my talkshow on BlogTalkRadio.com and I hope that you will tune in live. Right now, I have no guest lined up, but I would love to have you call in and talk with me. Perhaps you have some thoughts on US 78 and can share your commute stories with us, but whatever road- or roadgeek-related thing is on your mind, we can talk about it as well.

Finally, South Carolina DOT has unveiled a new look for their state route signs and I kinda like it. What are your thoughts? Please feel free to share them on my talkshow or by submitting a comment.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, hope you listen to my talkshow, and please come back again.


 

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    • 9/16/2007 7:47 PM Roaddog wrote:
      The new South Carolina state shield is much nicer than the plain and boring black/white square. The more states that ditch the boring squares and circles, the better. Do I think that SC could have done a better job with their redesign? Sure, but I'm happy with any change that eliminates the square. Now if only MA would do something about theirs!

      I visited Snellville in January 2004, in fact right after the Atlanta roadgeek meeting that year. The drive from the city to Snellville was clogged with traffic. I can imagine it would get old dealing with that traffic on a daily commute...
      Reply to this
    • 9/19/2007 6:40 PM Bryant wrote:
      I drove US 78/SR 10 from East Park Place to SR 124/Scenic Highway not too long. I drive out there every so often. In any event, this is a good idea. Reversible lanes are quite dangerous, probably as dangerous, if not more than, "suicide," double left turn lanes. Old National Highway comes to mind (double left turn lanes).


      Lastly, the South Carolina state shield looks pretty good.
      Reply to this
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