Transport and commuting · I-85 and I-985
Getting around Buford
Getting around Buford starts with one piece of geometry: I-85 and I-985 meet here. The Mall of Georgia sits at I-85 Exit 115, the I-985 spur leaves the interstate just above the Suwanee line and runs to Gainesville, and State Route 20 (Buford Drive) carries the local traffic between the two. Most everyday trips run along that Buford Drive corridor, and the weekday commutes to Atlanta, the mall district, and Gainesville each have their own honest time.
Transit is a weekday commuter story. The Xpress express network runs from the park-and-ride lot at the I-985 / State Route 20 interchange, and Ride Gwinnett's local Route 50 joins the corridor toward Suwanee and the mall. MARTA rail is a drive away at Doraville, or the Xpress routes connect downtown. Every route, lot, and time below is verified; where something does not exist, this page says so plainly.
The roads
The interstate junction that made the town
I-85
The interstate runs along the west side of town with the Mall of Georgia at Exit 115, its interchange with State Route 20. Southbound it is the road to Suwanee, Sugarloaf, and Atlanta. Just above the Suwanee line, at Exit 113, I-985 splits off and carries the Gainesville traffic.
I-985
The Gainesville expressway. Its interchange with State Route 20 at Buford, I-985 Exit 4, is the town's commuter front door and the home of the park-and-ride lot. From there the four-lane runs about 16 miles to the Gainesville exits, carrying US 23 and State Route 365 with it.
State Route 20, locally Buford Drive
The main street through town, running from the Mall of Georgia interchange east through downtown Buford and across I-985, and west toward Sugar Hill and Cumming. Pretty much every local trip crosses it, which is exactly why the peak-hour backups concentrate here.
US 23 and State Route 13, the concurrency
I-985 carries US 23 and State Route 13 along its length, which is why the surface highway through the neighboring towns keeps the same number. Buford's own downtown sits on State Route 20, and the regional routes meet the interstate at Exit 115's mall corridor.
The commutes
What the drives to the usual destinations actually take
Times below are published figures for normal, uncongested traffic on the I-85 and I-985 corridors. The morning and evening peaks change them substantially, and the Atlanta run is the one that everyone asks about first.
Downtown Atlanta
About 40 minutes
Roughly 35 to 39 miles via I-85 south. Published figures run 35 to 45 minutes in normal traffic; at the worst of the weekday peak, budget an hour or more.
Gainesville
About 25 minutes
About 19 miles up I-985, with published figures in the 23 to 27 minute range in light traffic. The lake shoreline and the Hall County towns sit just beyond.
Mall of Georgia corridor
About 5 minutes
The mall sits at I-85 Exit 115 on the west side of town; from downtown Buford on State Route 20 it is roughly four or five minutes. This is the errand run, hardly a commute at all.
For scale: the average one-way commute in Gwinnett County runs about 33 minutes across all workers, per the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. A Buford household commuting into Atlanta runs well above that average by design.
Transit
What actually runs, and what does not
Ride Gwinnett, the county's local bus network, reaches Buford's commercial corridor but not the interior neighborhoods. Its local Route 50 runs along the State Route 20 corridor, connecting the Suwanee side through the Mall of Georgia, Exchange at Gwinnett, and on to Coolray Field. Addresses off that frontage are without a fixed-route stop.
The commuter story is the Xpress regional network, which absorbed Gwinnett County Transit's former express routes in June 2025. Xpress runs weekday commuter routes from the Buford park-and-ride lot, and both connect to MARTA rail downtown:
Xpress Route 411
Buford to downtown Atlanta
Weekday service from the I-985 / State Route 20 lot, with a stop at Sugarloaf Mills. Connects at the Civic Center and Arts Center MARTA stations in downtown Atlanta.
Xpress Route 412
Buford to midtown Atlanta
Weekday service from the same lot, bound for midtown. Connects at the Arts Center MARTA station.
Ride Gwinnett Route 50
Suwanee to Buford, locally
Weekday local service along the State Route 20 corridor, linking Suwanee Town Center, the Mall of Georgia, Exchange at Gwinnett, and Coolray Field.
Buford Park-and-Ride
At the I-985 / State Route 20 interchange, on Buford Drive
The town's commuter lot in the transit industry's records as the I-985 / GA 20 (Buford) Park and Ride. Routes 411 and 412 leave from here on weekday mornings and return in the evening peak. It fills early.
Sugarloaf Mills Park-and-Ride
A few minutes southwest, at the I-85 / State Route 316 corridor
The second commuter lot in the Buford orbit, used by Routes 411 and 412 as a mid-line stop. Handy for the south side of town and the Suwanee addresses closest to it.
Schedules and fares change with the season, and the June 2025 handoff from Gwinnett's express routes to Xpress is recent enough that printed habits are worth re-checking. Confirm the current timetable before your first ride; the lots fill early on weekday mornings.
Rail and air
MARTA, Hartsfield-Jackson, and the local field
No MARTA rail line reaches Buford or any other Gwinnett address. The nearest station is Doraville, the outer terminus of MARTA's Gold Line, about half an hour south on I-85 in light traffic. For a weekday commute, the practical rail connection is the one the Xpress routes make downtown at the Civic Center and Arts Center stations.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 45 to 50 miles southwest, roughly 45 minutes to an hour in normal traffic and longer when the corridor is busy. It is the hub airport for the region and the answer to "which airport" for most Buford households.
For private and general aviation, the nearest public field is Gwinnett County Airport Briscoe Field in Lawrenceville, roughly half an hour by car, a public-use municipal airport with a 6,000-foot runway. Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville is the public option on the north end of the corridor.
The takeaway
Driving or transit, the honest answer for Buford
- The morning peak stacks up southbound on I-85 toward the Perimeter and the evening peak reverses northbound. The mall interchange at Exit 115 backs up in both windows.
- The neighborly commutes are the counter-flow ones: toward Gainesville on I-985, toward Suwanee and Lawrenceville on the surface roads, you are mostly moving against the heaviest traffic.
- The park-and-ride lot on Buford Drive fills on weekday mornings. If the bus is the plan, being early is the plan.
- School traffic concentrates on Buford Drive at the downtown crossings and near the mall entrance in the drop-off and pickup windows.
- Inside the neighborhoods there is no fixed-route service. The honest expectation is a car-first town with a real weekday express option at the interstate lot, which is more than most Gwinnett addresses can say.
Thinking about moving to Buford? Explore Rob Dietrich's Buford 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.