Atlanta doesn't exactly excel in the realm of logical street layouts. After all, if you want to stay on the same street, you probably have to turn, and chances are you'll just wind up on Peachtree anyway. Throughout the metro, many cities have attempted to apply logic to the streets by adding numbers. It worked in New York, right? Unfortunately, while the attempts at street logic are well-intentioned, the approach often results in unbelievably perplexing arrangements. Like the age-old prank of releasing two large animals painted with the numbers "1" and "3" into a building, maybe these local city planners are just trying to troll us. Here are 10 instances of number insanity, from across the metro. Count von Count is not impressed.
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Atlanta's Street Patterns are Even Whackier Than You Think

Atlanta - 27th Street?
Once upon a time, someone in Atlanta decided to attempt a numbered street grid. Using Peachtree, which is slightly straighter than a circle, as a spine, they added streets sequentially northward from North Avenue. While they can be commended for sticking to their guns, just before giving up at 28th Street, they somehow managed to forget that 27 exists.
Avondale Estates - 1 and 3 are odd
Not wanting to be left out of the action, the small town of Avondale Estates seemingly had a very nice numbered street grid. But at some point it seems Edward Scissorhands was elected mayor and all but chopped the grid to pieces. While parts of seven avenues remain in tattered remnants, perplexingly they decided to retain only three names: 1st, 3rd and 7th avenues. Because that makes sense.
Decatur - so close
Firstly, Decatur should be commended for having five, successfully sequentially numbered streets which actually run parallel to each other... for a little bit. However, true to Atlanta form, instead of being able to simply drive from one end of 1st Avenue to the other (a measly five blocks), one must make a right turn onto Oakview Road and then a left a few hundred feet later back onto 1st, a journey which takes you from heading due east to due south.
Chamblee - too good to start at 1
Throwing logic to the wind, Chamblee has three sequential block-long streets, 4th, 5th and 6th, wedged between Clairmont Road and the Peachtree-Dekalb Airport. If the missing first three weren't ridiculous enough, for some reason 8th and 9th make an appearance on the opposite side of Clairmont, with 8th Street making a mad dash away from all the others after hopping Park Lane.
East Point - Hodge-podge
East Point learned to count 1 to 7 without skipping a single number, but seems to have missed the day in kindergarten about drawing straight lines. For some reason 1st street stretches almost two blocks, while 2nd, sitting to the west, makes it only one before running into 3rd, which is stacked on top of the next four streets, all crammed into just more than one normal sized block.
East Point - Lonely 8th street
Almost two miles from the hodge-podge of 1st-7th streets, 8th Street has seemingly struck out on its own. Randomly situated between Pearl Street and Kimmeridge Drive, the street is only two blocks long and seemingly hopelessly out of place.
Marietta - Unruly Streets
Along a four mile stretch of Atlantic Avenue, encircling three sides of Dobbins Air Reserve Base, all but 2nd Street shows up between 1st and 7th. Arranged as haphazardly as a plate of spilt spaghetti, the roads mostly end in dead-ends due to such obstacles as lakes and fences.
Norcross - A Twisted Web
While Google Maps omits a few roads, making the situation even worse than it already is, even Bing can't help in locating a 6th Street. Tangled in a web of numbers, 1st Street intersects with itself while 8th becomes 4th and 7th at either end.
Stone Mountain - Trying So Hard
In Stone Mountain, lacking a 1st Street can be forgiven with the presence of Main in its place. With 2nd, 3rd and 4th running almost parallel for more than six blocks, and even a tiny piece of a 5th Street, overall things are pretty good. Though sadly somewhere along the way 2nd got sliced in half.
Tucker - Bless its Heart
Did Tucker miss the memo? "(Re: The Point of Numbered Streets.)" While having a grid far better than most metro areas, and even applying "street" to north-south thoroughfares and "avenue" to east-west, they seem to have willy-nilly applied numbers without regard for direction or order. 1st Avenue runs through the heart of the downtown area, connecting along its way 2nd, Main and 4th streets.
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