ATLANTA — If you can believe it, not everyone in Atlanta is a baseball fan, or will want a piece of the Braves parade on Friday.
For sure, the anticipation around the city for the parade is incredible - schools are closed and many offices are closing or planning half days. There's going to be a lot of people around.
Which is great! But it will also make things difficult to navigate.
Whether you're trying to catch the parade with the least amount of hassle, or want to avoid it entirely, these will be the places you want to steer clear of, both with the first part of the parade going through Downtown and Midtown Atlanta and the second part in Cobb County:
Peachtree Street
The first part of the parade will run up Peachtree Street in Atlanta. It begins at Marietta Street and goes up to 10th Street, meaning if you are trying to avoid the parade on Friday you'll need to avoid the areas north of Downtown, the blocks to the south and north of North Avenue, and Midtown to the southwest of Piedmont Park.
There are other main arteries going up this part of Atlanta parallel to Peachtree Street - Spring Street, West Peachtree, Piedmont Avenue - be aware of the possibility of spillover congestion on those, too.
Here are some of the more obvious crowd choke points up Peachtree:
- Woodruff Park/100 Peachtree Plaza (Equitable Building)
- Margaret Mitchell Square (and the plaza across the street)
- Peachtree Center MARTA entrance
- Outside Hotel Indigo/across street in between 225/235 Peachtree
- Outside the Hyatt Regency
- Truist Plaza/Hardy Ivy Park between Baker St. and W. Peachtree St.
- Parking lot at the corner of Porter Pl. and Peachtree/Atlanta First United Methodist Church
- The corners of Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd./Peachtree (including Mayor's #1 Park)
- Outside St. Luke's Episcopal Church/big parking lots across the street
- Outside Emory University Hospital Midtown
- Bank of America Financial Center plaza
- Outside North Avenue Presbyterian Church
- The Ponce Triangle/Around the Fox Theatre
- Corners of 3rd Street and Peachtree
- Outside 730 Midtown/Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
- Park area at the corner of 4th/Peachtree
- Outside Saint Mark United Methodist Church
- Big parking lot between 5th and 6th Streets
- Plaza area at corner of 7th Street
- Parking lot at 8th Street
- Plaza at 10th Street/Margaret Mitchell House
Cobb County
Most of the stretch of Cobb Parkway the Braves plan to travel up on their way to the stadium isn't great for foot traffic, and the mile-long stretch of largely shopping plazas and office buildings may be quite difficult to access by car on parade day, so just be aware of that.
That said, if you're thinking about any one particular crowd choke point on the Cobb route, it's probably going to be the area between Galleria Parkway and Galleria Drive, adjacent to the Galleria Center.
There will also probably be big gathering spots at the corners of the large intersection of Cobb Parkway and Spring Street/Circle 75 Parkway, right at the entrance to The Battery.
Cobb County has also released its road closures for around Cobb Parkway, which will commence as early as 10 a.m.
The roads that will be closed in Cobb include:
- Cobb Parkway itself, from Cumberland Blvd. at the south end back to Cumberland Blvd. at the north end (Cumberland Blvd. sorta circles around Cobb Parkway)
- Riverwood Parkway
- Cobb Galleria Parkway
- Akers Mill Road
- Circle 75 Parkway
- Spring Road from Cumberland Blvd. to Cobb Pkwy.
