ATLANTA — Georgia has the 13th best roads in the nation — and 2nd best in the Southeast — according to a report by Reader’s Digest magazine.
The state is also home the 20th most deadly roads, a report posted to the magazine’s Web site indicates.
Interstate 285, which circles Atlanta, also made the magazine’s list of bad roads.
“We call it the Watermelon 500 because people drive like lunatics on it,” the magazine quotes a trucker from Rushville, Ill., as saying. “It’s like a giant NASCAR race going around Atlanta.”
Another trucker – from Charleston, West Virginia – quips the thoroughfare is “four or five lanes of traffic in each direction, with traffic 24 hours a day.”
“People drive like they’re on the motor speedway. There’s always so much congestion, and people are constantly cutting in and out,” he told the magazine. “The worst part is where 85 and a bunch of local highways come in: Spaghetti Junction. There are multiple ramps at different levels, and so many people getting on and off, it’s just very confusing. You have one little accident and it shuts everything down.”
Kansas’ roads topped the magazine’s list of best roads. However, when it comes to bad roads, Louisiana takes the cake. In fact, the magazine named “Louisiana roads in general” to the list of The 7 Worst Roads in America.
“The local paper published a picture of a guy who, to make a point, set a mattress down inside a pothole and was taking a nap,” the magazine quoted a New Orleans traffic reporter as saying.