I-75 Experience

A week ago, I visited Knoxville, Tennessee and Lexington, Kentucky with my family. We went by car, going almost the entire way down Interstate-75. We covered the 1,436 mile round trip uneventfully, although the road conditions in southern Georgia were appalling, with around eighty miles of heavily-traveled I-75 traffic being slowed and boxed together by two-lane road construction. The roads were very narrow (with semi’s thundering down them, jutting over into the adjacent lanes) and extremely bumpy, with long stretches of barricades and concrete walls. At one point, in Adel, Georgia, we were going to pull off the road for some food, but the exit was so confusing because of the construction and barricades that we just stayed on the road until conditions cleared up. So the businesses of Adel lost our business (and probably that of many others) because of this. Personally, I don’t see the necessity of tying up so much road-length at one time. Why not concentrate a big effort on repairing one stretch at a time? Ultimately, the responsibility for this sort of thing, I believe, rests with the Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, whom I wish the good citizens of that great state (in which I was born) would toss out of office next election! Perdue’s a Republican, so let them replace him with another Republican, if that’s what they want! Just get someone in there who can keep their traffic lanes (and businesses) open!

The parts of the drive that were in Tennessee and Kentucky were striking in that, although there was some construction going on in those states, it was limited to small stretches. The driving there was much better. I also noticed that the Georgia State Police, to a much greater degree than their counterparts in Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky, were preying upon motorists, with as many as three flashing squad cars at a time on the side of the road per victim. A little overkill, wouldn’t you say? Our experiences in Tennessee and Kentucky were, by contrast, wonderful!

Unless one slips around through the panhandle into Alabama, all road traffic emanating from Florida must travel through Georgia. And I find it personally offensive that this state would concentrate its aggressive ticketing on this crucial artery that we must travel through to get to other states, as well as caring so little about the quality and safety of this “national” road.