What Is the Worst Highway in Nashville?
- 4 sections
- 1 table
- 2 sources cited
By the measures available, Interstate 24 is Nashville’s worst highway. TDOT calls the I-24 corridor between Nashville and Murfreesboro the most congested corridor in the state, and the American Transportation Research Institute’s 2026 truck bottleneck list ranks the I-24/I-40 interchange at I-440 on Nashville’s east side 7th worst in the country. Other Nashville interchanges on the national list sit on I-40 and I-65, so “worst” depends on where you drive. These rankings measure congestion, not crash risk.
Nashville on ATRI’s 2026 Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks
ATRI builds its list from truck GPS data; the 2026 list uses 2025 data. Speeds are in miles per hour.
| National rank | Location | Average speed | Peak-hour speed | Off-peak speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East) | 36.8 | 26.8 | 41.6 |
| 19 | I-40 at I-65 (East) | 39.1 | 31.3 | 42.6 |
| 49 | I-65 at I-24 | 45.3 | 38.1 | 48.4 |
| 67 | I-65 at SR 386 | 45.3 | 37.7 | 49.0 |
Source: ATRI, Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks 2026. The list ranks freight congestion at specific interchanges, measured from trucks; it is a guide to where traffic slows, not a measure of car travel times.
Why I-24 Stands Out
- The east-side interchange. At the I-24/I-40 junction with I-440, ATRI measured a peak-hour truck speed of 26.8 mph, the slowest of the Nashville locations on its list.
- The Murfreesboro corridor. TDOT describes I-24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro as the most congested corridor in Tennessee. Its I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes project would add new lanes on about 26 miles of that stretch; in September 2026 TDOT reached a commercial close with its partner DriveTN and was working toward financial close in 2027 (WSMV).
The Other Problem Spots
- I-40 at I-65 (East). The interchange ATRI labels this way ranks 19th nationally, with a peak-hour speed of 31.3 mph.
- I-65 at I-24. Ranked 49th, with a peak-hour speed of 38.1 mph.
- I-65 at SR 386. Ranked 67th, where ATRI recorded the largest drop in peak-hour speed of the four Nashville locations, 8.6% from 2024.
Planning Around It
If your route crosses one of these interchanges at a commute peak, check a live-traffic map before you leave and set your departure time in the app; the city-wide picture is in how bad Nashville traffic is. For trips to and from the airport, distances and no-traffic times are in how far BNA is from downtown.