What to do if your car breaks down on I-20

What makes I-20 its own problem

Three things, in practice.

The exits are further apart than they feel. Especially heading west out past the downtown interchanges and east beyond Moreland. When something starts going wrong, the mental maths of "I'll make the next exit" is frequently optimistic. If the vehicle is failing, take the shoulder you have rather than the exit you are hoping for.

The shoulder is inconsistent. Through the built-up sections near downtown there are stretches where it narrows against a wall or a barrier with very little refuge. Further out it opens up. You do not get to choose where you break down, but if you have any distance left in the car, spending it reaching a wide shoulder is the best use of it.

It is a commuter road that behaves like a freight road. Heavy trucks, sustained speed, and the kind of traffic density where a stopped vehicle is a genuine hazard rather than an inconvenience.

The order of operations

1. Hazards immediately. Before you have finished deciding what is wrong.
2. Get right, all the way past the line. Wheels straight. If an off-ramp or a wide gore area is within reach and the car will make it, take that instead of the shoulder.
3. Stay in the vehicle, belted in. Doors locked. This is the safest place you have. Exit only on the passenger side, and only if you can get properly clear — behind a guardrail, up a bank, well off the road surface.
4. Fix your location in your head. Eastbound or westbound. Last exit passed. Any visible landmark or mile marker.
5. Call. 911 if you are in a live lane, if anyone is hurt, if there is smoke or a fuel smell, or if you feel unsafe. Otherwise call for the tow.

Describing where you are on I-20

"I'm on I-20" narrows it to roughly forty miles of road inside the metro alone. What actually locates you:

• Direction. Eastbound or westbound. If you are unsure, say what you were driving towards — downtown, Six Flags, Decatur, Conyers.
• Last exit. Even approximately. "Just past Moreland" is a real answer.
• Which side. Right shoulder or left shoulder. These are meaningfully different situations for the driver coming to you.
• Anything you can see. An overpass, a large sign, a building.

Or send a pin, which beats all of the above combined.

The specific I-20 mistakes

Trying to change a tire on the shoulder. There are stretches of I-20 where the shoulder is narrow enough that kneeling beside the car puts you well within reach of a passing mirror. It is not worth it. This is what roadside tire service is for.

Walking to the next exit. It is always further than it looks, there is frequently no safe path, and pedestrians on an interstate are both illegal and in serious danger. Stay with the vehicle.

Pushing on while overheating. If the temperature gauge is climbing into the red, stopping costs you a tow. Continuing can cost you an engine. And do not open the radiator cap on a hot engine — the system is under pressure and it will scald.

Getting it sorted

Once you are safe, the question is whether the vehicle needs to move or needs to be fixed. Plenty of interstate breakdowns — batteries, belts, flats, fuel — are repairable, though on I-20 that usually means getting the vehicle somewhere safe first. Describe the symptoms honestly when you call and you will get a straight answer about which one you are looking at.