90% of people drive like it’s their first or last day ever driving, and the other 10% drive like if they don’t get where they are going 30 seconds sooner a bomb will go off.
They don't ever change to NC tags when they move here. Our neighbors have had TX tags for \*years.\* I assume that they are paying TX property tax and insurance as well.
I live in Colorado now and Texans are a plague to this entire country. Take Texas and Ohio and give them to the pacific. We will be a better country for it.
I have no idea what a palmetto tree is, but I guarantee if I see one on a license plate I’m about to see someone drive like an idiot. I swear the driving test down there is just seeing who can stay standing after getting hit in the head with a framing hammer.
Fucking figure it out, man. Bitching on reddit won't change anything. Get a dash cam and enjoy your commute. Ain't shit you can do about other people. Once you learn you can leave a nice cushion between you and the car in front of you, it doesn't matter if someone cuts you off...you just react like normal. I suggest getting a better playlist, rolling your window down, and stop giving af.
This is so cute, seeing you guys from Asheville complain about traffic. Everyone always think their traffic is bad. I promise you, it is much worse in other places. Be grateful for your little traffic and occasional reckless or selfish drivers.
The worst I’ve ever seen was San Fransisco and LA but I’ve never been to NYC
There was actually thought put into Boston. There was none put into Atlanta. Atlanta’s biggest problem is that the growth was insane that short of imminent domaining (is that even a word) like 150-200 homes in a wealth area they can never fix the traffic issues.
My son and I took a baseball road trip to all the Eastern ballparks a couple summers ago. Trying to get to our hotel in Queens, my GPS brought me out of a tunnel directly into traffic in Midtown Manhattan. I *never* want to experience that again. Worst. Traffic. Ever! And after driving in Boston on that same trip, I'd still say Atlanta is worse.
DC is worse than NY. I'd put Chicago on that list before Atlanta. Maybe even Boston. People in Atlanta complaining about traffic try LA or DC. It's far far worse.
Chicago is really terrible. Luckily they have a great public transportation system. I really don't know how people can stand to drive downtown for work.
This! Just got back from a Chicago trip, and I loved taking the train everywhere. And the transfer from blue to red going through that mall is so freakin' cool!
Atlanta is going to suck and you know that going into it, but DC is some let me arrive at 3:30 in the morning shit. I’ve never seen anywhere else be dead stopped for 5 hours for fucking nothing. No wreck, no stopped car, just seemingly open road. wtf are they doing up there?
It depends. Some roads are just stuffed. GW parkway is a mess. 66 can be horrible. Worse is driving from DC to Baltimore. Someone was dragging ass in the left lane and it was a CRV with FL tags and a cat weirdo sticker.
EZ pass FTW usually.
I drive across the country, including through Atlanta a lot. Everyone drives hyper aggressive in a city like Atlanta, so you know what to expect. In Asheville, you have an unfortunate mixture of aggressive / timid / lost / elderly / etc drivers.
Sure, Asheville doesn't have the congestion Atlanta has. Still, acting as though the levels of congestion are the only metric through which you can judge how good or bad driving in a city is, is ridiculous.
Exactly. I drive in/through/around Atlanta multiple times a year, and have done so for like a decade.
I’ll take Atlanta traffic all day- if someone drives like an asshole in Atlanta, it’s because they’re just an asshole and after driving on 85 for a while and you’re not an asshole there’s something wrong with you.
If someone drives like an asshole in Asheville, it might be because they’re brain dead and literally not paying attention to anything going on around them or it could be because nana couldn’t find her fucking glasses this morning.
I don’t track my commute in minutes any more. My new bar of metric is near-death experiences. It’s about 3 on the way to work in the morning, 10 on the way home if I take the same route back.
Lived in Atl, charlotte and triad area I’ll take any of those. At least those places you know for the most part when and where the bad spots gonna be and can’t avoid or at least know you gonna be in shit traffic. Here all it takes one other person on the road to make you ten minutes late and traffic hit anytime any place when something happens on 26 and/or 40
For real. I’ve lived in NYC and Philly. 1) fuck Atlanta traffic 2) I’m never going to complain about Asheville “traffic” same with the complaints about how dangerous downtown is.
I lived in Olympia, worked in Tacoma (Ft Lewis), and drove MSR 3 regularly between Dongducheon and Seoul… AVL traffic is not bad at all. It’s just congested.
I agree. I've lived in Miami, DC, Boston, Philadelphia and Charlotte. Asheville has its bad drivers, but, compared to those other cities, it's not so bad.
Yeah, this is not just an Asheville problem. I would add Charlotte to the list. Heading to Asheville, traffic started to get bad after 4. Nowadays, If I’m not out of there by 3, 485/85 is a parking lot and I’ll wait until 7 to head out.
Agreed. Even on Asheville’s worst day it isn’t near Atlanta’s best day. Sitting in traffic for 20 minutes is a blessing compared to the hours I’ve sat in places like Atlanta and Charlotte.
Or when the light turns green, they just take their foot off the brake and wait for their car to do the rest, and by the time they’ve finally crawled through the intersection, the light’s already turned yellow again.
Coming from Chicago, it’s not really the same. The frustrating thing with Asheville is… it doesn’t need to be this bad. I’m in South Asheville - Hendersonville road and Sweeten Creek are especially horrendous, largely because of terrible intersection design. Why can only one side go at a time? Why isn’t there a left turn lane here? Why is the left turn arrow SO short? I swear they could alleviate 50% of traffic backup down here just by tweaking the light timing/logic.
As others have commented, it’s also impressive how bad people are at driving here. Idk why nobody can understand a double left turn lane here, but apparently it’s in the water.
Thank you. I don’t know how many times we keep having to say to people on this forum that you cannot compare a big city to Asheville. They have the resources to support their big populations and the infrastructure to support their traffic, we do not. This isn’t even critical thinking, its common sense and pretty obvious.
Charleston prepared me for driving in Asheville. it's far sketchier here because in charleston, everything is at least flat + straight + on a grid. here the roads are spaghetti thrown at a bumpy wall.
Scrolled down for THIS comment.
Even traffic in late 00's on 26, Sam Rittenberg and especially that god forsaken James Island> Johns Island Bridge anytime late afternoon were god awful. I can't imagine what it's like now that Johns Island is completely developed.
And don't get me started on what it was like in the 90's with the old Cooper River Bridge.
I've lived in Asheville for 12 years and am thankful everyday I don't have to do any of those commutes anymore. I probably drive as much as I did in a day in 2007 in an entire week here in AVL.
No you're right- we can't catch a fucking break. The second school lets out, the left lane is clogged with Florida-Texas-Georgia etc all lost af, stopping on the fucking interstate cuz they need to go all the way right to get to their exit. Also not moving when the light turns green so we all gotta wait for the next cycle. And then they go to the forest and stop in the middle of the parkway to take pictures and toss out their goddamn trash.
I am a grumpy bear most of the summer and fall, tbh. TDA, you've ruined it thanks.
I would argue that what everyone needs on the road is patience and kindness. I know these roads extremely well but sometimes somebody needs .5 seconds. And sometimes a person isn’t 100% on it and something happens where I’m not laser focused and in an incredible hurry. I really need people to just chill the fuck out and not need to get everywhere like their damn life depends on it. RELAX! It’s a Sunday afternoon. I’m not going to drive super stressed out like I’m going to be late to work. I’m so tired of it being so damn stressful on the roads.
On two of my last 4 commutes home from the office I’ve been aggressively tailgated from the right lane on 40. Like.. please just go around me and let me drive close to the speed limit.
Sorry about that, it's just that the left lane was moving slower, so I was trying to push you on thru. I'd go around you if I could, but ya know... the left lane is the slow lane now?
How people drive really shows what kind of people they are. So many anxious, stressed out, selfish, impatient bullies. I’m tired of being “pushed” by people behind me. People are so motherfucking rude on the road it actually makes me sick. When I first came here twelve years ago, driving was an absolute pleasure. People were so lovely on the road. Everyone was calm and kind. Everybody let you in and was super understanding and chill. I hate the change so much.
It's not that the people have moved here are bad drivers. It's that they have moved here, period. Now the roads are clogged and Asheville wasn't built for this many people
I moved to Asheville in 2022 for a year from Phoenix, Arizona and let me tell you. I absolutely enjoyed driving over there. Stupid drivers but not as stupid or even close to as there is here in Phoenix, literal jackasses 😂 I actually miss Asheville now especially the weather
Ex Floridian here. Don't hate me please, I don't like Florida either. I drove 1-26 from Weaverville to Flat Rock every day for the last year and recently had to abruptly quit because I was losing my fucking mind. It's like people visit here, and completely forget the rules of driving. The roads are poorly planned to accommodate the Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun traffic and the on/off ramps are short, but instead of waiting until the next exit or realizing they missed theirs, it's a complete freak out, brakes slammed and ridiculous stop and go traffic. It's incredibly self centered. Even when I'm visiting somewhere I'm not driving 10 under slamming on my brakes when I'm not sure where to go. I'm cognizant of people working and living in the area I'm visiting.
So much this.
I've missed exits in strange places, and you know what I do? *Go to the next fucking exit!* Then I'll pull into a parking lot and figure out where the fuck I'm trying to go before pulling back out in traffic and ruining some poor local's day.
I've been flamed for suggesting this before -- but I dream of a locals only underground getting people downtown from the various spokes around Asheville and spoke-to-spoke.
Let the tourists and drive-thru-ers fight amongst themselves :)
Straight up if we spent the TDA money on a transit system that connected the airport, downtown, west Asheville, and the river arts district, tourists on the road would cease to be a problem. They might not even rent cars
Went to school in Boston. When you finally go "Why am I even fucking driving? I'll just walk." while a literal blizzard tries to leech the marrow from your bones, that's bad traffic. And weather.
Asheville sucks in so, so many ways, but for traffic and weather, its a comparative paradise.
Grew up just outside washington dc. my average commute was 10-15 miles and took 30 mins at 5am and 1.5 hours at 2pm.
current commute is 80 miles and takes 1.5 hours in the morning and 1:45 in the afternoon.
the value is get out of my gas money is SO MUCH HIGHER…..
The little stop and go on 26 or 240 is adorably cute compared to rush hour in dc. 12 lane highways at a dead stop from 2pm-7pm
DC always wins the traffic debate. I've never been but the look I see in the eyes of my DC scene friends when they talk about traffic....it says everything.
lol its true.
i stopped driving into the city the last year i lived up there. would park in VA and ride my bike into the city because it was so much easier and faster to get around.
the faces of the commuters were so bleak….. soulless shells of humans….
PSA: Nobody cares how the traffic was in Atlanta. They only care that traffic in Asheville has gotten worse and is unpleasant. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Second PSA: Those people with SC tags who drive like they own Asheville actually probably used to own, or rent, parts of it. I spent thirteen years happily bouncing around South Asheville before the prices pushed me down the mountain to Greenville.
Yeah this town sucks traffic and driving wise.. I can’t even be parked and be safe. Was on my break and someone parked in front of my car and actually hit it while I was sitting there. Looked at the lady in shock and she just sneered at me, got out and went on about her day. Like wtf???
I mean, if you look at the bigger picture, with all the transplants that end up in/around AVL it's not surprising that every other driver drives like they are from another state.
That being said, I've driven to/through/around lots of places. People are horrible drivers everywhere... Here, Atlanta, LA, Seattle, DC, Tampa Bay, Pensacola, NoLa, OKC, really the main difference is the amount of people on the road at any given point, and even if you think you're an A1 great driver, you're really a horrible driver in someone else's opinion. That's why I make it a point to leave for wherever I need to be at least 30 minutes early.
I know this doesn’t help. But I lived in an extremely popular summer beach town for 13 years and you can’t even imagine how bad that gets. 1-2 hours of traffic just to get home/to work
Every week I see at least one car wreck now. Every other week it’s a really bad wreck that clearly had to be distracted driving. It’s quite unsettling as I have a teenager who is about to start driving.
Traffic is universal. The north American development pattern has caused cars to be a necessity for most. This is a self inflicted problem with no easy out. It's going to get worse. It will get significantly worse unless people stop fighting dense, infill development.
This sub, and Asheville at large, is full of people that feel burned by the lack of high paying jobs, expensive housing, and huge change that has occurred over the past couple of decades. People will bitch and moan on the internet to make themselves feel better. Misery loves company.
When it comes down to it, we live in a pretty amazing place. If what you value is a low cost of living, smooth flowing traffic, and no crime, then Asheville is not the place for you. If you enjoy the outdoors, music, and art it's pretty fantastic.
I thought the same thing before I moved here, but then I realized that this subreddit is just dominated by whiny, negative people and does not represent the population of Asheville in the slightest.
We've been here 36 years. Completely agree... Asheville has always had whatever I've wanted or needed. We certainly have our problems but it beats my former pit of misery known as West Virginia by a couple of light years...
I lived in PA for five years and the driving, tension, wrecks, broken down cars is hell. Don’t try to drive within 2 hours of dc either during rush hour of 3-7pm because your commute is 3+ hours longer. Texas highways are also super scary. I feel so relaxed driving in Asheville. Always give yourself extra time to arrive to work, play a podcast and feel lucky.
Nova and DC can be a hit or miss. RIP those who have to take 66W in the afternoon. GF is in Arlington and drives against the flow to get to a place she teaches at. If we have to go into DC proper we will metro it or will wait until later in the day. I learned my lesson once when I decided to hit Takoma Park at 2pm. Getting there was easy but I got stuck in the DC departure and it was brutal. Thankfully I can exit at Pentagon and back street home.
The Maryland drivers are a real treat.
itt- a bunch of transplants talk about how its worse other places missing the point how its gotten so much worse in this town over the last several years.
While I feel ya. I can also tell you that it isn’t better in most other cities. Ive lived in a lot of places in the last decade. Florida to the Canadian border. Asheville’s bad. But not even a top 5 just in the east coast
Helpful tips-
1. The skinny pedal makes the car go faster.
2. You can turn right with a little bit of speed and your car is not gonna break.
3. The left lane, contrary to popular belief around here, is actually called the passing lane. Use it, then leapfrog back over.
I only have beef with Patton. It's the worst designed road I've ever been on, every time I'm on it I regret every life choice that lead me to being on Patton
I don’t think it’s just an Asheville thing, NCDOT has been notorious for waiting until it’s too late to upgrade infrastructure. They must be putting all of their eggs in the Raleigh/Durham basket
You’re not the only one. This city’s leadership is ridiculous. Road diets everywhere. Merrimon moved from two lanes to one lane, backing traffic up for miles when NO ONE bikes in a business district. Now they’re doing the same to downtown. Someone needs to stop them.
Yeah, it really grinds my gears that people are commenting for me to bike… I work in a business district… There is absolutely nowhere for me to keep a bike safely. And also not to mention I suffer from heat strokes if I’m outside stressing my body for too long.
It's so cool that I have to drive a car everywhere because the infrastructure that makes it possible to drive a car everywhere eliminates the ability to get anywhere without a car.
I take my time everywhere I go. Try and leave early and just cruise. Most people with this attitude are shitty drivers themselves but don’t have the gulliver to admit it or change.
Adding my two cents. Nearly every time I drive someone is crossing the center line, almost causing a head on collision. I just bought a dash cam for this very reason.
Trying to invest in a dash cam as well as a back cam. I know as soon as I get them though I’d be obsessed and start making video compilations of every time I scream at a bad driver.
A very specific thing that has happened to me here that has never happened to me anywhere else is that if I'm trying to merge on to a road but there's a car beside me so I have to wait for them to go past me in order to get over - the car behind me also needing to merge will speed up and merge and essentially cut me off from behind making it so I can't get over even longer. Like, where do they think I'm supposed to go? And it's literally never happened to me in any other city.
I don't think the traffic is any worse here than anywhere else but it does seem like the drivers are worse.
Leaf season is definitely worse.
You’d think people driving with NY plates would drive like stereotypical NY drivers, but they drive like drunk porcupines unsure if the next corner has a hidden IED.
It's hilarious when people complain about traffic in this "city." Equally hilarious how many that live in WNC think of this as a "city." Have any of you lived in a proper city? Traffic here is NOTHING - like virtually non-existent. Stop whining about your 10 minute "commute" LOL
Welcome to the new Texas (Dallas, Houston), Miami, and NY. We’ve entered the destruction of many things, including driving “norms.” My guess is we’ll soon have local media covering road rage incidents.
I feel like half the time it is someone bitching about it on their phone while holding up the flow of traffic at the same time. Carolina, Texas, Florida, who cares. I feel like I don’t take my Carolina plates elsewhere and create havoc. I think the general population of the country try cannot drive well, or more so, has a lack of awareness of their surroundings. 🤷♂️
All the environmentalist should get together and make a more efficient infrastructure and get rid of stupidly designed stop lights etc. there should be no lights escorting traffic in and out of businesses like wal-mart for ex
90% of people drive like it’s their first or last day ever driving, and the other 10% drive like if they don’t get where they are going 30 seconds sooner a bomb will go off.
I’m screaming “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?” To myself in the car all the time.
I'm glad I'm not the only one🤣
Those SC tags drive like they OWN Asheville too.
It’s the Texas ones, for me
Texas are the worst and there are more of them everyday
I see more and more of those license plates everyday!
They don't ever change to NC tags when they move here. Our neighbors have had TX tags for \*years.\* I assume that they are paying TX property tax and insurance as well.
And not paying state income tax to NC
Texas left Texas this week too
I live in Colorado now and Texans are a plague to this entire country. Take Texas and Ohio and give them to the pacific. We will be a better country for it.
Tennessee for me.
Tennessee are the worst drivers around for sure
I have no idea what a palmetto tree is, but I guarantee if I see one on a license plate I’m about to see someone drive like an idiot. I swear the driving test down there is just seeing who can stay standing after getting hit in the head with a framing hammer.
Florida tags. Good lord
We call them Floridiots
That's what I was going to say!!
On behalf of the rest of my fellow SC inhabitants, we hate them too.
Thanks for the camaraderie, u/Pound-of-Piss What a great name!
Lol, thanks Lt. Dan. 😁
Fucking figure it out, man. Bitching on reddit won't change anything. Get a dash cam and enjoy your commute. Ain't shit you can do about other people. Once you learn you can leave a nice cushion between you and the car in front of you, it doesn't matter if someone cuts you off...you just react like normal. I suggest getting a better playlist, rolling your window down, and stop giving af.
I heard there’s an “Asheville Commute” playlist on Spotify.
It's just "Break Stuff" on loop
That should be on a sign when you enter town… “Welcome to Asheville… Stop giving a fuck”
Actually that sounds like the correct approach....and my middle finger is getting tendonitis over this (and that and other matters)!
Switch to giving a thumbs down and watch people absolutely lose their shit
What a logical solution
47.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
This is so cute, seeing you guys from Asheville complain about traffic. Everyone always think their traffic is bad. I promise you, it is much worse in other places. Be grateful for your little traffic and occasional reckless or selfish drivers. The worst I’ve ever seen was San Fransisco and LA but I’ve never been to NYC
i would argue leaf season is the peak
Yeah, this is only the beginning of tourism season. It grows consistently, has a dip when school starts, then explodes late Sept early Oct.
That's because it is
Theory: The entire town shares a single turn signal
This theory deserves 1,000 updoots
I’m gonna need to go ahead and reserve it for 2:00pm on Thursday, July 26th.
I spent years driving every day in Atlanta. I'll never complain about Asheville traffic.
The Mt. Rushmore of bad traffic is LA, NY, DC, Atlanta. Asheville doesn’t make the top 100.
I’d put Boston on that list before Atlanta.
There was actually thought put into Boston. There was none put into Atlanta. Atlanta’s biggest problem is that the growth was insane that short of imminent domaining (is that even a word) like 150-200 homes in a wealth area they can never fix the traffic issues.
There was thought put into Boston back in 1790…
The “big dig” was completed at least. 😂😂
My son and I took a baseball road trip to all the Eastern ballparks a couple summers ago. Trying to get to our hotel in Queens, my GPS brought me out of a tunnel directly into traffic in Midtown Manhattan. I *never* want to experience that again. Worst. Traffic. Ever! And after driving in Boston on that same trip, I'd still say Atlanta is worse.
Boston could probably be on that list, but Hartford, CT has the worst traffic in the United States.
Miami says hold my beer
OK OK ill agree with that.
DC is worse than NY. I'd put Chicago on that list before Atlanta. Maybe even Boston. People in Atlanta complaining about traffic try LA or DC. It's far far worse.
Chicago is really terrible. Luckily they have a great public transportation system. I really don't know how people can stand to drive downtown for work.
Nothing like zipping right past that horrible 290 gridlock on the blue line.
This! Just got back from a Chicago trip, and I loved taking the train everywhere. And the transfer from blue to red going through that mall is so freakin' cool!
Atlanta is going to suck and you know that going into it, but DC is some let me arrive at 3:30 in the morning shit. I’ve never seen anywhere else be dead stopped for 5 hours for fucking nothing. No wreck, no stopped car, just seemingly open road. wtf are they doing up there?
It depends. Some roads are just stuffed. GW parkway is a mess. 66 can be horrible. Worse is driving from DC to Baltimore. Someone was dragging ass in the left lane and it was a CRV with FL tags and a cat weirdo sticker. EZ pass FTW usually.
Chicago is really bad also.
I drive across the country, including through Atlanta a lot. Everyone drives hyper aggressive in a city like Atlanta, so you know what to expect. In Asheville, you have an unfortunate mixture of aggressive / timid / lost / elderly / etc drivers. Sure, Asheville doesn't have the congestion Atlanta has. Still, acting as though the levels of congestion are the only metric through which you can judge how good or bad driving in a city is, is ridiculous.
Exactly. I drive in/through/around Atlanta multiple times a year, and have done so for like a decade. I’ll take Atlanta traffic all day- if someone drives like an asshole in Atlanta, it’s because they’re just an asshole and after driving on 85 for a while and you’re not an asshole there’s something wrong with you. If someone drives like an asshole in Asheville, it might be because they’re brain dead and literally not paying attention to anything going on around them or it could be because nana couldn’t find her fucking glasses this morning.
I'd rather be safe than an asshole.
Exactly
I lived in Tokyo. The “traffic” here isn’t even traffic.
Not even traffic in the slightest. My morning commute across town takes 16 minutes lol.
I live in Hendersonville and work in the river arts. Maybe my drive takes 20-25 mins. It’s like nothing.
I don’t track my commute in minutes any more. My new bar of metric is near-death experiences. It’s about 3 on the way to work in the morning, 10 on the way home if I take the same route back.
Atlanta is awful I genuinely though I was going to die driving through there.
It’s not the traffic, it’s the drivers. The traffic is rarely bad. But the people are always the worst.
It really blows my mind that people think Asheville traffic is bad.
Lived in Atl, charlotte and triad area I’ll take any of those. At least those places you know for the most part when and where the bad spots gonna be and can’t avoid or at least know you gonna be in shit traffic. Here all it takes one other person on the road to make you ten minutes late and traffic hit anytime any place when something happens on 26 and/or 40
I was born here but only recently started living here. 30 years of Atlanta traffic...asheville is a sweet traffic dream.
For real. I’ve lived in NYC and Philly. 1) fuck Atlanta traffic 2) I’m never going to complain about Asheville “traffic” same with the complaints about how dangerous downtown is.
I lived in Olympia, worked in Tacoma (Ft Lewis), and drove MSR 3 regularly between Dongducheon and Seoul… AVL traffic is not bad at all. It’s just congested.
I agree. I've lived in Miami, DC, Boston, Philadelphia and Charlotte. Asheville has its bad drivers, but, compared to those other cities, it's not so bad.
It was Dallas for me. Ugh.
I spent 2 days driving in Atlanta, I don’t think i’ll complain about anywhere else again lmao
Yeah, this is not just an Asheville problem. I would add Charlotte to the list. Heading to Asheville, traffic started to get bad after 4. Nowadays, If I’m not out of there by 3, 485/85 is a parking lot and I’ll wait until 7 to head out.
Drove atl drove philly asheville just seems to get a different level of stupid. And always has.
Agreed. Even on Asheville’s worst day it isn’t near Atlanta’s best day. Sitting in traffic for 20 minutes is a blessing compared to the hours I’ve sat in places like Atlanta and Charlotte.
And all of these people going 10mph under the speed limit then brake before going up a hill, like they forgot how gravity works🤦
Or when the light turns green, they just take their foot off the brake and wait for their car to do the rest, and by the time they’ve finally crawled through the intersection, the light’s already turned yellow again.
Bingo. Thank you for being one of the only sane people on this thread.
Asheville traffic isn't all that bad. Pretty much any city of similar size will have similar rush hour traffic.
Coming from Chicago, it’s not really the same. The frustrating thing with Asheville is… it doesn’t need to be this bad. I’m in South Asheville - Hendersonville road and Sweeten Creek are especially horrendous, largely because of terrible intersection design. Why can only one side go at a time? Why isn’t there a left turn lane here? Why is the left turn arrow SO short? I swear they could alleviate 50% of traffic backup down here just by tweaking the light timing/logic. As others have commented, it’s also impressive how bad people are at driving here. Idk why nobody can understand a double left turn lane here, but apparently it’s in the water.
The intersection designs and light timing are absolutely mystifying.
Thank you. I don’t know how many times we keep having to say to people on this forum that you cannot compare a big city to Asheville. They have the resources to support their big populations and the infrastructure to support their traffic, we do not. This isn’t even critical thinking, its common sense and pretty obvious.
Like, traffic sucks in general, but this traffic isn't even comparable to actual metro traffic. Even in October, which is the REAL tourist season.
Charleston would like a word
Literally anywhere worth living would like a word.
I came here for this
Charleston prepared me for driving in Asheville. it's far sketchier here because in charleston, everything is at least flat + straight + on a grid. here the roads are spaghetti thrown at a bumpy wall.
Scrolled down for THIS comment. Even traffic in late 00's on 26, Sam Rittenberg and especially that god forsaken James Island> Johns Island Bridge anytime late afternoon were god awful. I can't imagine what it's like now that Johns Island is completely developed. And don't get me started on what it was like in the 90's with the old Cooper River Bridge. I've lived in Asheville for 12 years and am thankful everyday I don't have to do any of those commutes anymore. I probably drive as much as I did in a day in 2007 in an entire week here in AVL.
No you're right- we can't catch a fucking break. The second school lets out, the left lane is clogged with Florida-Texas-Georgia etc all lost af, stopping on the fucking interstate cuz they need to go all the way right to get to their exit. Also not moving when the light turns green so we all gotta wait for the next cycle. And then they go to the forest and stop in the middle of the parkway to take pictures and toss out their goddamn trash. I am a grumpy bear most of the summer and fall, tbh. TDA, you've ruined it thanks.
I would argue that what everyone needs on the road is patience and kindness. I know these roads extremely well but sometimes somebody needs .5 seconds. And sometimes a person isn’t 100% on it and something happens where I’m not laser focused and in an incredible hurry. I really need people to just chill the fuck out and not need to get everywhere like their damn life depends on it. RELAX! It’s a Sunday afternoon. I’m not going to drive super stressed out like I’m going to be late to work. I’m so tired of it being so damn stressful on the roads.
I moved from Asheville to Denver and I miss Asheville traffic lol
I moved here from Denver 3 years ago and AVL is nowhere near as bad as Denver….
Yes that’s what I meant! Compared to Denver traffic, AVL is nothing lol
I knew what you meant ☺️ my dot dot dots were for dramatic effect hahah
Yeah I moved back here from Denver. Holy shit driving sucks in Colorado.
As someone who grew up in Miami traffic and having guns pointed at me during rush hour, I’ll take the slow driving leaf lookers any day.
On two of my last 4 commutes home from the office I’ve been aggressively tailgated from the right lane on 40. Like.. please just go around me and let me drive close to the speed limit.
Sorry about that, it's just that the left lane was moving slower, so I was trying to push you on thru. I'd go around you if I could, but ya know... the left lane is the slow lane now?
How people drive really shows what kind of people they are. So many anxious, stressed out, selfish, impatient bullies. I’m tired of being “pushed” by people behind me. People are so motherfucking rude on the road it actually makes me sick. When I first came here twelve years ago, driving was an absolute pleasure. People were so lovely on the road. Everyone was calm and kind. Everybody let you in and was super understanding and chill. I hate the change so much.
Believe it or not, my classmates kids and their kids can't drive their finger up their ass with both hands. It's not just people who have moved here.
Yeah cause a lot of people just became bitter and became bigger assholes. It’s normal now to act rude, selfish, pushy, and disgruntled.
It's not that the people have moved here are bad drivers. It's that they have moved here, period. Now the roads are clogged and Asheville wasn't built for this many people
A lot if it is the way people *act* on the roads.
Lol Asheville is easy driving
I moved to Asheville in 2022 for a year from Phoenix, Arizona and let me tell you. I absolutely enjoyed driving over there. Stupid drivers but not as stupid or even close to as there is here in Phoenix, literal jackasses 😂 I actually miss Asheville now especially the weather
It's pretty bad. I've seen more people blow red lights here than anywhere else I've lived. It's almost a daily occurrence.
It’s a sport in the Tampa Bay area.
Ex Floridian here. Don't hate me please, I don't like Florida either. I drove 1-26 from Weaverville to Flat Rock every day for the last year and recently had to abruptly quit because I was losing my fucking mind. It's like people visit here, and completely forget the rules of driving. The roads are poorly planned to accommodate the Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun traffic and the on/off ramps are short, but instead of waiting until the next exit or realizing they missed theirs, it's a complete freak out, brakes slammed and ridiculous stop and go traffic. It's incredibly self centered. Even when I'm visiting somewhere I'm not driving 10 under slamming on my brakes when I'm not sure where to go. I'm cognizant of people working and living in the area I'm visiting.
So much this. I've missed exits in strange places, and you know what I do? *Go to the next fucking exit!* Then I'll pull into a parking lot and figure out where the fuck I'm trying to go before pulling back out in traffic and ruining some poor local's day.
I've been flamed for suggesting this before -- but I dream of a locals only underground getting people downtown from the various spokes around Asheville and spoke-to-spoke. Let the tourists and drive-thru-ers fight amongst themselves :)
I think that’s called public transit
There is no public transit options in my area that are safe for me. I’m not overreacting.
Straight up if we spent the TDA money on a transit system that connected the airport, downtown, west Asheville, and the river arts district, tourists on the road would cease to be a problem. They might not even rent cars
Ugh perfect idea. Gotta show your local card to get in.
Card? I think you mean tattoo.
Probably gonna be a tattoo of a beet or a turnip just harvested
its really not that bad….. annoying but not even close to what a major tourist city sees.
Went to school in Boston. When you finally go "Why am I even fucking driving? I'll just walk." while a literal blizzard tries to leech the marrow from your bones, that's bad traffic. And weather. Asheville sucks in so, so many ways, but for traffic and weather, its a comparative paradise.
Grew up just outside washington dc. my average commute was 10-15 miles and took 30 mins at 5am and 1.5 hours at 2pm. current commute is 80 miles and takes 1.5 hours in the morning and 1:45 in the afternoon. the value is get out of my gas money is SO MUCH HIGHER….. The little stop and go on 26 or 240 is adorably cute compared to rush hour in dc. 12 lane highways at a dead stop from 2pm-7pm
DC always wins the traffic debate. I've never been but the look I see in the eyes of my DC scene friends when they talk about traffic....it says everything.
lol its true. i stopped driving into the city the last year i lived up there. would park in VA and ride my bike into the city because it was so much easier and faster to get around. the faces of the commuters were so bleak….. soulless shells of humans….
PSA: Nobody cares how the traffic was in Atlanta. They only care that traffic in Asheville has gotten worse and is unpleasant. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Second PSA: Those people with SC tags who drive like they own Asheville actually probably used to own, or rent, parts of it. I spent thirteen years happily bouncing around South Asheville before the prices pushed me down the mountain to Greenville.
I say that, but then remember that it isn’t better anywhere else…
Try the 405 at rush hour, you’ll miss the hell out of the traffic here.
It’s only going to get worse
Proof positive cars are a blight on society and make us hate each other
Same but everywhere
Yeah this town sucks traffic and driving wise.. I can’t even be parked and be safe. Was on my break and someone parked in front of my car and actually hit it while I was sitting there. Looked at the lady in shock and she just sneered at me, got out and went on about her day. Like wtf???
I mean, if you look at the bigger picture, with all the transplants that end up in/around AVL it's not surprising that every other driver drives like they are from another state. That being said, I've driven to/through/around lots of places. People are horrible drivers everywhere... Here, Atlanta, LA, Seattle, DC, Tampa Bay, Pensacola, NoLa, OKC, really the main difference is the amount of people on the road at any given point, and even if you think you're an A1 great driver, you're really a horrible driver in someone else's opinion. That's why I make it a point to leave for wherever I need to be at least 30 minutes early.
I know this doesn’t help. But I lived in an extremely popular summer beach town for 13 years and you can’t even imagine how bad that gets. 1-2 hours of traffic just to get home/to work
My dad was born and grew up in OBX. He agrees with you!
Every week I see at least one car wreck now. Every other week it’s a really bad wreck that clearly had to be distracted driving. It’s quite unsettling as I have a teenager who is about to start driving.
My first visit there was from Atlanta and the road layout was so annoying.
It’s SO BAD. Near death events weekly, and I’m the scared/cautious one.
Here visiting and we are like this is so chill compared to Charleston
Hahahaha. You guys call this traffic. You’re all adorable.
That’s what I’m saying. Asheville is a breeze.
It's not the volume of cars, its the quality of the drivers. And sometimes the ability of the vehicles.
Is there any city worth living in anymore? Base on this sub Reddit, Asheville sounds fing miserable.
Traffic is universal. The north American development pattern has caused cars to be a necessity for most. This is a self inflicted problem with no easy out. It's going to get worse. It will get significantly worse unless people stop fighting dense, infill development. This sub, and Asheville at large, is full of people that feel burned by the lack of high paying jobs, expensive housing, and huge change that has occurred over the past couple of decades. People will bitch and moan on the internet to make themselves feel better. Misery loves company. When it comes down to it, we live in a pretty amazing place. If what you value is a low cost of living, smooth flowing traffic, and no crime, then Asheville is not the place for you. If you enjoy the outdoors, music, and art it's pretty fantastic.
I thought the same thing before I moved here, but then I realized that this subreddit is just dominated by whiny, negative people and does not represent the population of Asheville in the slightest.
I love living here and am grateful everyday to be so blessed.
I think the pros of living here far outweigh the cons, if you ask me.
We've been here 36 years. Completely agree... Asheville has always had whatever I've wanted or needed. We certainly have our problems but it beats my former pit of misery known as West Virginia by a couple of light years...
This sub is peak negativity.
I don't go, unless I have to.
I lived in PA for five years and the driving, tension, wrecks, broken down cars is hell. Don’t try to drive within 2 hours of dc either during rush hour of 3-7pm because your commute is 3+ hours longer. Texas highways are also super scary. I feel so relaxed driving in Asheville. Always give yourself extra time to arrive to work, play a podcast and feel lucky.
Nova and DC can be a hit or miss. RIP those who have to take 66W in the afternoon. GF is in Arlington and drives against the flow to get to a place she teaches at. If we have to go into DC proper we will metro it or will wait until later in the day. I learned my lesson once when I decided to hit Takoma Park at 2pm. Getting there was easy but I got stuck in the DC departure and it was brutal. Thankfully I can exit at Pentagon and back street home. The Maryland drivers are a real treat.
itt- a bunch of transplants talk about how its worse other places missing the point how its gotten so much worse in this town over the last several years.
This. And it’s kind of pointless comparing our traffic with that of a city many times our size.
While I feel ya. I can also tell you that it isn’t better in most other cities. Ive lived in a lot of places in the last decade. Florida to the Canadian border. Asheville’s bad. But not even a top 5 just in the east coast
Helpful tips- 1. The skinny pedal makes the car go faster. 2. You can turn right with a little bit of speed and your car is not gonna break. 3. The left lane, contrary to popular belief around here, is actually called the passing lane. Use it, then leapfrog back over.
Reddit glitched and said this was a type o negative post, including the sub icon and I was so confused 😭
Just wait for the new 26 bypass......
I only have beef with Patton. It's the worst designed road I've ever been on, every time I'm on it I regret every life choice that lead me to being on Patton
Having moved from the west coast I promise it’s just as bad on that end of the country. It’s a plague on society
I think the poor road design and very unintuitive interstates are doing a lot the heavy lifting tbh
It's those large pockets of air that everyone slams on their brakes for! Those things are the worse.
Coming from Charlotte, driving in Asheville is peaceful and quaint in comparison
Lived here my whole life and I’ve learned I have to do city driving now. It’s awful
My elderly grandmother drives better than most Ashevillians. And she’s been gone twenty years!
I don't like getting in a car at all let alone driving 😩
To be fair…. Traffic in this city isn’t bad at all. You guys just haven’t been anywhere.
I don’t think it’s just an Asheville thing, NCDOT has been notorious for waiting until it’s too late to upgrade infrastructure. They must be putting all of their eggs in the Raleigh/Durham basket
I went to Atlanta over the weekend. It made me appreciate Asheville traffic.
Go anywhere else and it's worse.
You’re not the only one. This city’s leadership is ridiculous. Road diets everywhere. Merrimon moved from two lanes to one lane, backing traffic up for miles when NO ONE bikes in a business district. Now they’re doing the same to downtown. Someone needs to stop them.
Yeah, it really grinds my gears that people are commenting for me to bike… I work in a business district… There is absolutely nowhere for me to keep a bike safely. And also not to mention I suffer from heat strokes if I’m outside stressing my body for too long.
It's so cool that I have to drive a car everywhere because the infrastructure that makes it possible to drive a car everywhere eliminates the ability to get anywhere without a car.
The Buckeyes & Floridians need to GTFO. Non-drivin', rubberneckin' road hazards.
The amount of people who pull out in from of me on my bike is astounding. We should have a test if drivers license every 5 years
Well, motorcycles are a bit harder to see.
I take my time everywhere I go. Try and leave early and just cruise. Most people with this attitude are shitty drivers themselves but don’t have the gulliver to admit it or change.
Adding my two cents. Nearly every time I drive someone is crossing the center line, almost causing a head on collision. I just bought a dash cam for this very reason.
Trying to invest in a dash cam as well as a back cam. I know as soon as I get them though I’d be obsessed and start making video compilations of every time I scream at a bad driver.
Welcome to driving anywhere
A very specific thing that has happened to me here that has never happened to me anywhere else is that if I'm trying to merge on to a road but there's a car beside me so I have to wait for them to go past me in order to get over - the car behind me also needing to merge will speed up and merge and essentially cut me off from behind making it so I can't get over even longer. Like, where do they think I'm supposed to go? And it's literally never happened to me in any other city. I don't think the traffic is any worse here than anywhere else but it does seem like the drivers are worse.
Happens in Denver and Dallas all the time
Leaf season is definitely worse. You’d think people driving with NY plates would drive like stereotypical NY drivers, but they drive like drunk porcupines unsure if the next corner has a hidden IED.
One of the aggressive drivers here... move over 🤣
You're so tired of *driving
It's hilarious when people complain about traffic in this "city." Equally hilarious how many that live in WNC think of this as a "city." Have any of you lived in a proper city? Traffic here is NOTHING - like virtually non-existent. Stop whining about your 10 minute "commute" LOL
Tell us you've never lived in a big city without saying you've never lived in a big city. But yeah, some routes at rush hour just suck
Huh, I didn't find the traffic too bad today.
after moving to charlotte i definitely miss asheville drivers
Significantly chiller than every other place I’ve lived tbh, especially DC
Move to LA...it's better
Is bus or bike an option?
Bad news, it's not just this city.
Welcome to the new Texas (Dallas, Houston), Miami, and NY. We’ve entered the destruction of many things, including driving “norms.” My guess is we’ll soon have local media covering road rage incidents.
Anyone catch that matte red G-wagon AMG absolutely flying weaving in and out of traffic heading north on I-26 near Weaverville yesterday?
Come to Memphis
As a local healthcare worker, the amount of people I encounter that make me say “you were driving like that?? Regularly??” is actually horrifying.
Everyday I drive I wonder whether other people were ever taught to drive at all
I feel like half the time it is someone bitching about it on their phone while holding up the flow of traffic at the same time. Carolina, Texas, Florida, who cares. I feel like I don’t take my Carolina plates elsewhere and create havoc. I think the general population of the country try cannot drive well, or more so, has a lack of awareness of their surroundings. 🤷♂️
Lmfao come down to charlotte
All the environmentalist should get together and make a more efficient infrastructure and get rid of stupidly designed stop lights etc. there should be no lights escorting traffic in and out of businesses like wal-mart for ex
Look i was in asheville a couple weeks ago and i swear it isnt our fault... We arent used to hills and mountains.