Here's how GDOT is helping ease Thanksgiving traffic

ATLANTA — Tuesday's afternoon commute was horrible for some, but it could get worse Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people are on the roads each Thanksgiving, and the Department of Transportation has a new program to help get drivers around traffic backups.

Channel 2's Dave Huddleston spent the day Tuesday at their traffic management center.

Officials showed him where the traffic will be bad and how they pinpoint delays.

Channel 2's Audrey Washington was back at the traffic management center Wednesday morning on Channel 2 Action News This Morning as more drivers hit the road for the holiday. Officials said traffic will only get worse later this afternoon.

“So this afternoon will be probably one of the worst travel times of the week and probably of the year,” said GDOT official Scott Higley.

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They were right. Traffic build up in the metro Atlanta area started right at around noon Wednesday. But officials tell us, there will be help on the road.

"Our heroes and our units will be out in force," said GDOT official Matt Glasser.

GDOT's traffic management center, with several other departments, including the Georgia State Patrol and representatives from the state toll lanes, are monitoring metro Atlanta with cameras and traffic engineers.

Glasser and his team crunched the data and created a traffic chart that shows when traffic will be the worst at certain times and days.

"We're able to look at different regions around Atlanta, and query that with what's going to happen. Say tomorrow evening, Wednesday, and what happened last year -- and a typical Wednesday," Glasser said.

Glasser showed Huddleston a chart that showed on Thanksgiving, the trouble spots are going to be northeast and northwest Atlanta.

Glasser said their algorithm calculates a typical day, the 16,000 miles of road and pinpoints real time trouble spots, like the ones he predicted for Tuesday evening.

"In fact, in some places, it's going to be 50 (minutes) slower than your typical commute," Glasser said.

If you have to travel on Thanksgiving, avoid downtown between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

If you have traffic questions or want more information you can use, go to their website 511GA.org.

Cox Media Group