Metro Atlanta

===Roads and freeways===
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2018}}

Atlanta is served by three major interstate highways. Including tributaries, they are the following:

(Note: The cities used below are also the [[control cities]] used for the Metro Atlanta Bypass/I-285 signs entering from the suburbs.)

[[Interstate 75 in Georgia|Interstate&nbsp;75]] passes through from Macon to the south, and from [[Chattanooga]] to the north. [[Interstate&nbsp;575]] is a spur which merges with I‑75 near Kennesaw. I‑575 serves northeast portions of Cobb County and a large portion of Cherokee County. It ends in Ball Ground. [[Interstate 675 (Georgia)|Interstate 675]] is a route which connects I‑75 in Henry County to I‑285 in southern Dekalb County. Most of the corridor is within Clayton County.

[[Interstate 85 in Georgia|Interstate 85]] passes through from Montgomery on the southwest and from Greenville on the northeast. I-75 merges with I-85 to form the [[Downtown Connector]] from the Brookwood Interchange, just north of Midtown Atlanta, to just south of the [[Lakewood Freeway]] in south Atlanta. [[Interstate 185 (Georgia)|Interstate&nbsp;185]] is a spur which merges with I‑85 in LaGrange and stretches southward to Columbus. [[Interstate&nbsp;985]] is a spur which merges with I‑85 in Suwanee and serves the northern suburbs of Gwinnett and Hall Counties. It terminates just northeast of Gainesville.

[[Interstate 285 (Georgia)|Interstate 285]] is the [[beltway]] which encircles the city and its immediate eastern suburbs. It is commonly known as the Perimeter. I‑285 passes through Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, and DeKalb Counties.

[[Interstate 20 in Georgia|Interstate&nbsp;20]] passes through from Birmingham to the west and from Augusta to the east. It serves Douglasville, the major suburb west of Atlanta. It serves Lithonia and Conyers to the east.

Atlanta is also served by several other freeways, in addition to the interstate highways, including:

[[Georgia&nbsp;400]] is the main corridor serving the north-central suburbs, and was the only toll road in the metropolitan Atlanta area. As of November 23, 2013, the tolls ended and the toll plazas were demolished. It reaches into the northern portion of Fulton County and gradually turns northeast before entering Forsyth County. The controlled-access portion terminates just northeast of the city of Cumming. To the south, it terminates and merges into southbound I‑85 just south of the Buckhead [[business district]]. Cumming/[[Dahlonega]] is used on I‑285 as the northbound sign, and Atlanta/Buckhead as the southbound. From I‑85 northbound, it uses Buckhead/Cumming.

[[Stone Mountain Freeway]], or [[U.S.&nbsp;78]], is an 8‑mile corridor east of Downtown Atlanta and the neighboring suburb of Decatur. It serves northeast portions of Dekalb County, including the city of Stone Mountain. It continues east as a divided highway into south Gwinnett County, including the suburb of Snellville. U.S.&nbsp;78 also stretches east to Athens.

Lakewood Freeway, or [[Georgia State Route 166|Georgia&nbsp;166]], extends between Lakewood Park in south Atlanta and Campbellton Road, just west of I‑285.

Peachtree Industrial Blvd, or [[Georgia State Route 141|Georgia 141]], is a route north-northeast of Atlanta which begins on the north side of I‑285 and runs parallel to I‑85 for about four miles until it terminates when it splits into GA‑141 and Peachtree Industrial (continuing as a normal divided highway).

[[Georgia State Route 316]] is a four-mile-long route that branches from I‑85 and stretches eastward into Gwinnett County. It continues east as a normal divided highway through the suburb of Lawrenceville and on to Athens.

There are many historic roads across the area, named after [[historic mills of the Atlanta area|its mills]] and [[historic ferries of the Atlanta area|early ferries]], and [[historic bridges of the Atlanta area|the bridges]] later built to replace the ferries. [[Pace's Ferry]] is perhaps the best known.

Owing to the area's long history of settlement and uneven terrain, most [[arterial road]]s are not straight but meander instead, which can be confusing as much as the famed proliferation of Atlanta streets with "Peachtree" in the name. It is also often joked that half the streets are named Peachtree, while the other half have several names to make up for it.

Partly, confusion is because the region maintains the historic nomenclature of each county naming its roads for the towns they connect with in surrounding counties. Thus, from Dallas to Roswell, [[Georgia State Route 120|Georgia&nbsp;120]] is Marietta Highway to the Paulding/Cobb county line, is Dallas Highway to the city of Marietta, Whitlock Avenue to the [[town square]], South Park Square for just one [[city block]], Roswell Street to [[Cobb Parkway]] (at the [[Big Chicken]]), Roswell Road to the Cobb/Fulton county line, and finally Marietta Street to the town square in Roswell. Further confusion is from the arbitrary location of state routes by the [[Georgia Department of Transportation]] (GDOT), so that they travel an erratic path requiring several turns by drivers instead of traveling the original straight route; and the renaming of roads by state legislators to honor their friends.

There are many roads like this throughout the area, leading to duplication of names in different counties. In Fulton, "Roswell Road" refers to [[Georgia&nbsp;9]] through northern Atlanta and across Sandy Springs, in addition to the above-mentioned use in Cobb, for example. Numeric [[street address]]ing is done by county as well, with the origin usually being at one corner of the town square in the county seat. The [[U.S.&nbsp;Postal Service]] ignores these actual and logical boundaries however, overlapping [[ZIP&nbsp;code]]s and their associated place names across counties. The Cumberland/Galleria area has Cobb's numbers and an "SE"&nbsp;suffix, but is called "Atlanta" by the USPS (despite being [[Vinings, Georgia|Vinings]], which the USPS ironically calls "unacceptable"), which can confuse visitors to think it is far away in southeast Atlanta.

Where more than one town in the same county has a road to the same place, the smaller towns have their own name prefixed to it, while the [[county seat]] does not. The road need not go directly to the other place, but may connect through other roads. Examples include Due West Road west from Marietta, Kennesaw Due West Road southwest from Kennesaw, and Acworth Due West Road south from Acworth. Some are usually [[hyphen]]ated, like Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, and Chamblee-Tucker Road.

There are also several roads named for communities which have been overwhelmed by the urban and suburban sprawl, and so are somewhat odd to newcomers. These include [[Sandy Plains, Georgia|Sandy Plains]], [[Crabapple, Georgia|Crabapple]], [[Toonigh, Georgia|Toonigh]], [[Luxomni, Georgia|Luxomni]], and [[Due West, Georgia|Due West]]. Some of these communities are in the middle of the road, while some are at or very near one end. Some areas are renamed, either over time (Sandy Plains gradually became "Sprayberry" when [[Sprayberry High School]] moved there and similarly named shopping centers popped up around it); by the USPS (Toonigh is identified as "Lebanon"), or after rapid development. In such cases, the roads usually maintain their historic names even if the neighborhoods do not.

There are also a few [[U.S.&nbsp;highway]]s that cross the area, including [[U.S. Route 19 in Georgia|19]], [[U.S. Route 23 in Georgia|23]], [[U.S. Route 29 in Georgia|29]], [[U.S. Route 41 in Georgia|41]], and [[U.S. Route 78 in Georgia|78]].

Other arterials are completely new, like much of [[Barrett Parkway]], [[Sugarloaf Parkway]] and [[South Fulton Parkway]], constructed by their counties but partly covered with a state route number. Occasionally, roads are realigned or extended to meet each other directly at a cross-road, leading to odd curves and name changes.