Originally Posted by DaveB

Atlanta is a bit strange because the traffic is everywhere. A lot of people live there, but the city is sprawled out. The traffic problem is caused by the lack of infrastructure and city planning. Basically the city governments wanted ATL to grow fast and they let the builders run mad without any regards for street planning and load. The other problem is there isn't a straight road in the town. All the roads meander and have blind corners and hills. It's really quite beautiful, but doesn't lend well to handling large amounts of traffic. When commuting between 630am and 830am and 400pm and 700pm, you'll be stuck in these areas crawling at 1mph or less in a line 1/4 mile long dealing with a stop sign or stoplight. It's really annoying, especially when you have to face 4 to 8 of these things on your way to and from work. It's crawling like that would be hell with a manual, especially when crawling up a 4%+ grade.

Originally Posted by kvangil

I go there for quite a few business trips, so I know what you mean... I hate driving there even in an Automatic. And I'm from Chicago, where we have gridlocks galore! But I'd much rather be stuck in Chicago traffic than Atlanta traffic.