Transport and commuting · The US 29 and 316 corridor
Getting around Auburn
Getting around Auburn is a Main Street story with good roads on both ends. US 29 and State Route 8, locally Winder Highway, run through the center of town, State Route 324 carries the traffic toward the Buford and Dacula side, and Highway 316 interchanges just southwest for the Atlanta and Athens runs. Almost every trip in Auburn starts on one of those three.
Transit is absent in the honest sense: there is no bus inside the city, no park-and-ride lot of its own, and the nearest local route and commuter lots are drives away in neighboring cities. Every road, lot, and time below is verified; where something does not exist, this page says so plainly.
The roads
The highways a small whistle-stop city runs on
US 29 and State Route 8, Winder Highway
The main road through the center of town, maintained by GDOT inside the city limits. West it runs toward Lawrenceville; east it continues to the Winder side and beyond. It is the street the old railroad town grew around, and still the one most trips begin on.
State Route 324
Runs from the Buford side, past the Hog Mountain crossing of State Route 124, to its eastern end at US 29 Business and State Route 8 in Auburn. It is the direct road to the Mall of Georgia corridor and the interstate at Buford.
State Route 316, University Parkway
The four-lane corridor that interchanges with the US 29 and State Route 8 concurrency just southwest of town. It is the fast way west toward I-85 and Atlanta and east toward Athens, and the reason the Atlanta run from Auburn does not need the interstate at all.
State Route 124, at the Hog Mountain corner
Crosses State Route 324 just south of town. South it runs toward Lawrenceville and Snellville; north it continues toward the Mulberry and Braselton sides. For Auburn addresses it is the connector road more than the main street.
The commutes
What the drives to the usual destinations actually take
Times below are published figures for normal, uncongested traffic on the roads Auburn actually uses. The weekday peaks change them considerably, and the Atlanta run is the one that everyone asks about first.
Downtown Atlanta
About 50 to 55 minutes
Roughly 42 miles via Highway 316 to the I-85 side, with published figures of 50 to 55 minutes in normal traffic. At peak, add real time, sometimes a lot of it.
Lawrenceville
About 20 minutes
About 11 miles west on US 29, with published figures of 18 to 19 minutes. The county business run, and the practical service hub for the town.
Mall of Georgia corridor
About 30 minutes
Up State Route 324 to the Buford side, where the mall district at I-85 Exit 115 sits. The big retail and job anchor of the corridor, a routine run at off-peak hours.
Transit
The honest transit picture: nothing inside the city
No fixed-route bus serves Auburn, and no park-and-ride lot sits inside the city. Ride Gwinnett's local network stays well to the west, and the nearest local route, Route 40 in Lawrenceville, is about a 20-minute drive away. Nothing about that is a walk-up option for anyone in Auburn.
The commuter picture is a drive-to-the-lot story. The Buford Park-and-Ride at the I-985 / State Route 20 interchange, and the Sugarloaf Mills Park-and-Ride on the I-85 side, are the practical express options, both roughly 20 to 25 minutes by car. Xpress, the regional network that absorbed Gwinnett County Transit's express routes in June 2025, runs weekday routes from those lots into downtown and midtown Atlanta, connecting with MARTA rail at the Civic Center and Arts Center stations.
For most Auburn households the honest math is simple: driving to a park-and-ride lot for 20 minutes to ride a bus for another hour rarely beats driving the whole way in on Highway 316.
Schedules and fares change with the season. Confirm the current Xpress timetable before your first ride; both lots fill early on weekday mornings.
Rail and air
Amtrak, Hartsfield-Jackson, and the local fields
The nearest MARTA rail station is Doraville, the outer terminus of the Gold Line, roughly 35 minutes by car in light traffic. For a transit commute, the practical rail connection is the one the Xpress routes make downtown; for intercity rail, the daily Amtrak Crescent stops at the Gainesville station, about 40 minutes north by car.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 51 to 53 miles from town, roughly an hour to an hour and 5 minutes in normal traffic. It is the hub airport for the region and the answer to "which airport" for most Auburn households.
For private and general aviation, Barrow County Airport near Winder is the closest public-use field, about ten minutes west; Gwinnett County Airport Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville is the other nearby public option, about 20 minutes by car.
The takeaway
Driving or transit, the honest answer for Auburn
- Auburn is a car town, and the honest first fact is that nothing about transit changes that for anyone who lives here.
- The Atlanta run is the long one, 50 to 55 minutes on the 316 and I-85 side, and longer at peak; the Lawrenceville run is the practical one at about 20 minutes.
- Highway 316 is the town's quiet superpower: fast, four-lane, and largely outside Gwinnett's worst congestion until the interstate merge.
- The weekday express option means driving 20 to 25 minutes to a lot first, so the lots make sense only for a real downtown schedule.
- Winder Highway through downtown backs up in the school and evening windows; the newer commercial traffic lives on the State Route 324 side.
Thinking about moving to Auburn? Explore Rob Dietrich's Auburn real-estate guide.
An editorial guide, not a listings site. Updated September 13, 2026. Real-estate guidance on this page is provided by Rob Dietrich, REALTOR® with eXp Realty, LLC.