You may be familiar with these two traffic clogs in Nashville’s inner highway loop. In fact, if you’re doing any traveling out of town this week, you just might get caught in them: Interstate 24 east of the Cumberland River before it merges with I-65, and I-40 south of downtown when it merges with I-65.
These are Nashville’s two worst traffic bottlenecks, according to an American Highway Users Alliance study released this week that catalogs the nation’s 50 worst traffic bottlenecks.
The study’s findings confirm in part what we previously reported this summer: Stretches of the interstates south and east of downtown have the highest average daily traffic counts in Middle Tennessee, per state transportation figures. That shouldn’t be a surprise since this is where you find the three interstates merge and unmerge in a dizzying and head-scratching manner. (For more on our where traffic is growing worse by the biggest percent, we’ve mapped it out for you here).
Traffic congestion is the biggest worry that Nashville is grappling with from the city’s surging growth. The root of the frustration is whether Nashville’s attractiveness in bringing so many new people into the city will choke its infrastructure, preventing those very employees from getting to work on time. Additionally, congestion has a big impact on recruiting new businesses and workers to town. As we reported last month, Nashvillians shouldn’t expect mass transit to completely rid the region of heavy traffic. But developing of full-fledged system remains critical to Nashville’s ability to grow in spite of congestion, local transit officials argue. (continue reading at Nashville Business Journal)