Some traffic trends go unexplained. There could be a string of wrong-way crashes or overturned big rigs in Metro Atlanta that may have nothing to do with each other. They are just strangely coincidental in happening in such a short time.
Others, such as the pattern of road-rage shootings and the closing of intersections by street racers, could be explained by sociological and psychological factors. In those cases, the pandemic-driven sense of angst and lawlessness are believed to have fed all sorts of bad behavior.
Still, other repeated traffic mishaps can be chalked to bad signage, planning, or road design.
A heavily traveled stretch of I-75 between Acworth and Kennesaw is seeing phenomena possibly influenced by all three phases.
From December into mid-January, crews have blocked a right lane in the midday hours of each weekday to remove trees. That single-lane closure routinely caused miles of delays, snarling freight and commuters alike. The delays were especially bad when the right-lane closure was northbound, meaning the slow traffic pushed back into Kennesaw.