Lengthening the GA 400 Nightmare

I've lived north of Alpharetta long enough to remember what the southbound morning rush hour commute on the 400 was like before they put a sign up near the Shiloh Rd overpass.  Traffic flowed smoothly at that point, all the way to Old Milton.

Then someone decided it would be nice to know how long it would take to get to Haynes Bridge, which in theory was a good idea.  They didn't, however, take into account the speed reading skills of the average driver on the GA 400.  We now have a bottleneck caused by rubberneckers trying to work out what the pretty sign is saying.  Never mind that it says the same thing nearly every morning, the exception being the occasional change to the two numbers on the bottom line.

When you work out what the top two lines say, all you need to do is pay attention to the bottom line.

At least, that's what I thought until a few months ago (I haven't had a chance to blog much lately).  You see, the sign originally said "5 miles ahead" but one day it changed to "6 miles ahead".  It stayed that way for a week, when it changed to the current distance.

I'm wondering if some bright spark noticed that the mile markers on the side of the road didn't add up properly, or if it had something to do with the earthquake in Japan last March, as it was shortly afterward that the sign changed.  Either way, apparently the GA 400 commute between Shiloh Rd and Haynes Bridge Rd somehow got longer.  Oh joy.

* Image courtesy of 511ga.org (GA Navigator).  Your website stinks by the way.  It's always broken, especially during rush hour.  I guess it simply reflects the state of the Atlanta area road system.  Always a mess and not enough bandwidth when it's really needed.