Appalachian Corridor J-1 hasn't been finished. As long as TDOT remains indecisive on whether to build an expensive new road north of Cookeville or widen Twelfth and Tenth Street, a gap will remain between the State Route 56 portion and the main Corridor J that follows State Route 111, making it challenging for traffic between Gainesboro and Sparta to avoid navigating Cookeville's traffic-choked streets without using a substandard county road. There's a third, likely cheaper option that could benefit Baxter too; TDOT could rebuild Ditty Road to be safer and support higher speeds to bypass Cookeville to the southwest and close the gap. This is already planned for most of the road but with the route going to Tennessee Avenue in Cookeville instead of Baxter. Furthermore, a bike route is overlain on Ditty Road but unsigned, even though it has no paved shoulders to keep bikers safe from high-speed arterial traffic. TDOT could widen the entire road to national highway standards and simply upgrade Cowan Road a lesser amount to serve as a local industrial access road; upgrading an existing rural road may also be less costly than building a new one or upgrading an urban one.

Furthermore, Baxter's bypass isn't really designed well. There's an all-way stop midway along a limited-access road meant for high-speed traffic on the eastern portion of the bypass, and traffic frequently backs up not only there but also going northbound at the traffic light with First Avenue South. TDOT could fix this by adding a second northbound lane at the traffic light and replacing the all-way stop with a J-turn or an overpass, which in the latter case could be reconnected to Buffalo Valley Road by an access road so only turning traffic has to stop. These two issues will get worse if the routing south of Cookeville is chosen for Corridor J-1 as suggested, so TDOT could also tap into federal funding for that if Corridor J-1 is routed there. Baxter's bypass route is key to connect Gainesboro to Murfreesboro (the nearest major city) and recreational areas along Center Hill Lake more quickly than the Old Baxter Road and Main Street did.

Last but not least, the Baxter bypass has another fundamental flaw. Seven miles of State Route 56 was routed onto Interstate 40, even though Interstate Highways are meant mostly for national defense and cross-country traffic. Tennessee's interstate highways are already overloaded with too many people treating them as collector or local arterial roads, causing delays at best and accidents at worst. Driving seventy miles per hour to keep up with traffic can also be a waste of fuel compared to driving fifty-five, but driving slower than traffic is dangerous, especially if you're not in the right lane. There isn't a frontage road between Old Baxter Road south of I-40 and Elmore Town Road planned at all as far as I know. A frontage road between Olan Maxwell Road and Elmore Town Road is already planned by TDOT, but that on its own wouldn't provide a more moderate speed alternative capable of alleviating some traffic issues on that seven-mile stretch of I-40/S.R. 56 and saving people's fuel. Main Street is not a moderate-speed alternative; the speed limit is thirty miles per hour in all of Baxter, even the rural parts west of downtown and close to the eastern portion of the bypass. The design also requires Main Street to be used as a detour for interstate traffic, which Mayor Danny Holmes said many residents complain about. Extending State Route 141 to Baxter Road south of I-40 would solve this issue; other alternatives could be extending Vergie Harris Road and Fast Lane to Elmore Town Road, adding all of Old Baxter Road to State Route 141 but routing it along First Avenue North instead of Main Street, or rerouting State Route 24 along Stanton Road.

If nothing changes, Baxter's bypass route will be increasingly traffic-choked on the eastern portion and dangerous and expensive on the southern portion, and Gainesboro will be isolated from economic opportunity by the current less-than-ideal fuel economy. Gainesboro and Baxter will also both face a choice between a problematic and fuel-inefficient drive on the interstate, a slow and fuel-inefficient drive on Cookeville's surface streets or a potentially dangerous drive on substandard county roads to get to recreational areas near Chattanooga, Rock Island, Virgin Falls and Fall Creek Falls as long as Corridor J-1 remains incomplete, and building it south of Baxter would probably save money and satisfy more demand compared to the two options conventionally considered for the construction of State Route 451. Traffic between Baxter and Sparta also is forced to choose between using the substandard Ditty Road and fuel-inefficient, not-meant-for-them Interstate 40 as a local arterial.

Enough is enough. It's time to finish Corridor J-1 once and for all but do it in a way that saves money and satisfies more demand if TDOT can't decide between the two routes initially favored. Baxter's bypass also needs to be upgraded to allow more flee-flowing traffic at intersections along its eastern portion and have a continuous frontage road along its southern portion so traffic isn't incentivized to use a high-speed road meant for cross-country traffic. Gainesboro is trying to hold on, but the truth is, rural America is dying economically; inadequate infrastructure does nothing to help. Alleviating traffic issues in Cookeville and on Interstate 40 by reducing demand and safety issues on Ditty Road by upgrading it to accommodate arterial traffic and bikes will help Gainesboro be better connected to economic opportunities it's currently isolated from and benefit Cookeville, its suburb Baxter and cross-country traffic passing through the area along the way. TDOT also needs to please act sooner rather than later; as of July 2024, I just learned that there's also a concept for a Scott Farm Subdivision in the area around where the planned bypass would meet State Route 135. Although Putnam County Road Superintendent Randy Jones ordered the Scott Farm to widen their portion of Ditty Road to three lanes and reserve enough right-of-way for five, TDOT would still need to act quickly if they want to build an interchange with S.R. 135 with minimal residential impact.

EDIT: In early June of 2024, the town of Baxter also lowered the speed limit of Main Street to fifteen miles per hour on a half-mile stretch downtown and put up Speed Bump Ahead signs indicating that they planned to put up speed bumps. Speed bumps can snap a semi-truck in half if they don't slow way down, so truck traffic will most likely need to be rerouted onto either First Avenue South in Baxter or Nashville Highway and Stanton Road west of it to remain safe. They took the signs down within a few days, so it seems to have been temporary for an event. Still, it may be best to consider rerouting traffic in case an incident were to happen during such an event in downtown Baxter for the safety of both pedestrians and truckers.

EDIT 2: As of July 2024, I just learned that there's also a concept for a Scott Farm Subdivision in the area around where the planned bypass would meet State Route 135.

EDIT 3: In 2025, it came to light that Mayor of Baxter Danny Holmes said many residents are complaining about traffic on Main Street during interstate incidents. This further highlights the need to establish a better detour route, even if it requires some degree of physical construction.

P.S.: I also created a Google My Map to give a better idea of what I'm talking about. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1rz95EMBCrZo7nObzYyJWHjkgeB6ptZ8&usp=sharing