What to do if you break down on the Downtown Connector (I-75/I-85)

Why the Connector is different

Everywhere else, the advice is "get to the right shoulder". On the Connector that advice can be actively dangerous, because getting to the right shoulder may mean crossing four or five lanes of dense traffic in a car that is losing power. If you are in a left or centre lane and the vehicle is failing, the honest answer is: take the nearest safe refuge you can actually reach, even if that is the left shoulder, and then call 911.

The second difference is that shoulders here appear and disappear. Through the walled and elevated sections there are places where there is essentially no refuge at all. That is why the decision to keep limping forward matters so much: another quarter mile can be the difference between a barrier-protected shoulder and a live lane.

If you are stopped in a live lane

Call 911 before you call anyone else. Not the tow company. Not a friend. 911.

Stay in the vehicle with your seatbelt on and hazards running, unless there is fire or a fuel smell. Getting out of a car stopped in a live lane on the Connector, in traffic, is how people die. A police unit or a Georgia DOT HERO unit can get behind you with lights and turn a lethal situation into a manageable one — and they can do it faster than a tow truck can reach you.

If you made it to a shoulder

Hazards on. Wheels straight. Stay belted inside with the doors locked. Do not get out to look at the engine. Do not stand in front of the car. Do not attempt a tire change — not here.

The exception, as always, is fire or the smell of fuel: then everyone gets out on the side away from traffic and moves well clear and upwind.

Telling someone where you are

The Connector is the one road in Atlanta where people most often cannot say where they are, because the exits come quickly and the signage is dense. What works:

• Northbound or southbound. Or, if that has gone out of your head: were you heading towards Buckhead, or towards the airport?
• Exit number. The Connector's exits are numbered, and an exit number is the most precise thing you can give.
• Which side, and how many lanes over. Left shoulder versus right shoulder changes the whole approach for the driver coming to you.
• A visible landmark. A stadium, a hospital, a large building, an overpass.

And again — share a pin if you can. It is worth learning how to do it on your phone on a calm day rather than on this road.

The wait

Be realistic about time. At rush hour, a truck getting to a specific point on the Connector has to fight the same traffic you were sitting in. Anyone who promises you fifteen minutes at half past five is guessing. Ask for a real window, and use it: stay in the car, keep the hazards on, and let the people with lights and equipment do the part that involves standing on the road.

Afterwards

A Connector breakdown almost always ends with the vehicle being moved, simply because there is nowhere safe to work on it. Once it is somewhere safe, the actual question — does this need a shop, or was it a battery — can be answered properly. Frequently the tow is only to get you off the road, and the repair itself is far smaller than the drama of the location made it feel.