MACON, Ga. — They call it rush hour for a reason. Folks are trying to go to and from work and students are trying to do the same for school.
In north Macon, traffic builds up at the intersection of Bass and New Forsyth roads.
13WMAZ's Jessica Cha tells us why some people say it's driving them crazy!
If you live on New Forsyth or Bass Road, you've probably seen traffic that builds up from picking up and dropping off kids at the school nearby.
Hunter Faircloth is 17 and he used to go to the Academy for Classical Education on New Forsyth Road. The charter school has no buses, so that means there are a lot of cars trying to get to school.
"Probably have to wake up around 6:15 and it'd be like 7:15 by the time we can get in there," Faircloth said.
Faircloth says a 15-minute drive to school can easily turn into 45, and he says kids can be late to school because of the traffic.
He says the four-way stop at the intersection of Bass Road and New Forsyth makes it worse.
"They just sit there and they guess and they inch out and hope to go, so it's really people just not knowing how to drive," said Faircloth.
Faircloth says the traffic isn't just bad, it's dangerous. He says on the way to school a couple of months ago, he got into a car accident at the intersection.
"I was pretty messed up and nobody could get to me because of people blocking the intersection because they're trying to get their kids to school," Faircloth said.
Keith Braswell, an engineer with Macon-Bibb's traffic department, says they're aware of the traffic problem, but a project is in the works that may help alleviate some traffic.
"The Bass Road widening project, it's been in concept for over planning and desire to widen Bass Road through this corridor since the middle '90s," said Braswell.
Braswell is project manager for the first phase of the project to expand Bass Road from Providence Boulevard to New Forsyth.
"It was not conceived to deal with the congestion at ACE because ACE wasn't there at the time, but it will address the problem," Braswell said.
Braswell says construction will not start until 2026.
In a statement, ACE said because of new businesses and apartments in the area, the road's infrastructure is not able to support the current traffic.
They say they're working with traffic engineers to make student pick-up and drop-off more organized.