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Cyclists and motorists can share the road
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot of us have been venting our spleen lately over the way cyclists and motorists share our roads. From reading some of the comments there’s a lot of bad blood doing a slow boil.
The cyclists think the drivers could be more aware of how to share the road. The drivers think cyclists ignore basic road rules and courtesy. There doesn’t seem to be a good common ground.
I don’t have a dog in this specific fight. I do jog through town and have had some close calls with motorists, but 90 percent of the time I’m on the sidewalks. And thankful we have sidewalks.
Our son Zach is a cyclist, up in Indiana where he’s in school. Cycling is a way of life in Bloomington, so people are used to sharing the road. But that didn’t keep him from being hit a couple of years ago.
According to him, the driver made an honest mistake on a misty day. There was no aggressive driving involved, but any time a bike and a car tangle the car always wins. Thankfully, the worst Zach took was some severe road rash. He said the driver was more shaken.
I bring this up because I read some of the comments of drivers and feel like they are a degree away from letting their emotions override their good sense and let their fender do the talking. And that’s not a car vs. bike issue - that’s a dangerous mindset to have when piloting a couple of thousand pounds of steel.
It should come as no surprised that I think the driving manners of Sandy Springs, on average, is dreadful. We zoom through yellow lights, we clog intersections, we tailgate school buses, we roll through stop signs, we don’t surrender the road to emergency vehicles and the list goes on and on.
There are several in our little burg who drive as though there is an expectation that other traffic will part like the Red Sea to let them get where they are going. We seem to forget that the roads are public.
What is it going to take for us to collectively learn to truly share the road, to slow down?
Why do Sandy Springs drivers have such lousy reputations?
And can anything change that?
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Gas prices have consumers stumped at the pump
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The price of gas has put many people in that “someone should” mode, as in “someone should do something about the price of gas.” The person saying that usually has no idea who that person is, and certainly not what they should so. But they should do, well, something.
It’s as though we’re helpless - like the villagers in those movies waiting for Zorro show up and beat the stew out of the entire Mexican army. Not that there are any quick solutions out there.
Indeed, I saw my first sign on Roswell Road last week, advertising petrol at $4 per gallon. We’re still able to get our gas for around $3.50 thanks to the grocery chain that gives a discount if you shop enough in their store, and the big-box discount warehouse out toward Perimeter Mall. Hard to believe that $3.50 used to fill a car with money to spare.
And I wish I could recall what gas cost 40 years ago when I worked one misbegotten summer at a gas station at the corner of Roswell and Johnson Ferry, which has been a burger joint for decades.
I was 13 and I’m guessing gas was probably less than a quarter a gallon. The self-service concept had not come to the wonderful world of gas stations, so when customer pulled up my job was to bounce out there, ask much they wanted and deliver the gas.
Plus, check the tires. Not to mention their oil and water levels. And clean the windshield. If you needed a map I’d fetch it. They were free back in those days.
I worked Saturdays from 6 to 6 and after taxes I think I was knocking down $13 per Saturday not counting the occasional tip. Before I started working $13 a week sounded like great money. After a couple of Saturdays pumping gas in the heat and humidity it lost much of its appeal.
I’m still pumping gas, checking fluid levels, tire pressure and cleaning my windshield - but for one car only. No tips, but the work goes by fast. And $13 doesn’t buy much gas - even at what passes for a good price.
While I’m waiting for that mythical person to come and “do something” about the price of gas I’m trying to cut down on how much I drive, and motoring in the right lane of the highway at a speed a touch slower than the other drivers.
I’m trying not to go through fast-food drive-thru lanes, burning gas while I wait for my food. And when I can, I walk. I doubt Al Gore is going to put me in his next movie, but you do what you can.
Maybe if we all did what we could we could muddle through this gas thing with less anxiety while we wait on “someone” to “do something.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
Has Sandy Springs cityhood been worth it? You betcha
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless something radical happens our neighbors in Dunwoody will vote this summer on becoming a city, the way we did here in Sandy Springs almost three years ago.
The whole thing reminds me of those days when I was a kid and couldn’t wait to grow up. I imagined life was perfect as an adult. I could come and go as I pleased, I could stay up late, I could eat at McDonald’s every day, I could watch all the TV I wanted to, etc. Of course I didn’t consider getting and keeping a job, paying bills, laundry, paying taxes and some the other things that come with being an adult.
Many people had the same wishful feelings before Sandy Springs became a city - once we were out from under Fulton County life would be great. But at a recent forum in Dunwoody someone floated the question - did the folks over there want another level of government?
And I started thinking if we were asked about whether being a city was worth it, what would we say? Are we better off now, than we were when we were part of Fulton County? Is being a city everything we thought it would be?
Or perhaps the question should be do we feel like we’re better off? Has it been worth the effort.
On the plus side of the ledger we’re no under the Fulton County Commission, a group many people felt (myself included) did not have our best interests in mind. It was okay to collect our taxes but the money seemed to have a strange way of ending up elsewhere.
Indeed, this week I got an e-mail from our neighborhood association about the non-emergency police contact number. Several people have said they used that number and got an indifferent response. Digging a little deeper it was discovered those calls were still being routed to Fulton County Police, not the local Sandy Springs officers.
On other fronts there might be some homebuilders who aren’t happy with us being a city. I’ve heard complaints that the permitting process is slow. Likewise the city stepped in to make sure a builder couldn’t buy a piece of land and bulldoze every tree of the property - something else that didn’t make a lot of builders giddy as schoolgirls.
Traffic on Roswell Road is still a pain in the buns.
If I was talking to the folks in Dunwoody and I had one minute to tell them how I felt about life after incorporation I guess I would say this:
If you think becoming a city is going to solve all your problems think again because what is a problem to me is a non-issue to my neighbor.
If you think electing your mayor and city council will make your lives better from Day 1, you’re mistaken because those folks can’t say yes to everything. And they shouldn’t.
If you think everything that bugs you will get better overnight, think again. Situations that bother us are usually years in the making and can’t be undone in the blink of an eye.
But is it worth it to have the opportunity to control our own destiny, not to mention our day-to-day lives? Absolutely.
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Memories of the “Underwear Hills”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The new elementary school in town is in the process - among other things - of choosing a name, school colors and a mascot. Obviously not the weightiest of decisions that will be made, but one that will lodge in a lot of memories.
Growing up I went all seven years of elementary school - this was in the pre-middle school era - at Underwood Hills, now The Epstein School. I can’t remember our mascot - the kids at other schools called us Underwear Hills — but I do recall our colors, for sports, were purple and white.
Back then our after-school sports program was run by the YMCA and was for boys only. If you were a girl with athletic prowess you were out of luck. As for us boys in the fall it was football, winter was basketball and spring was softball or track & field.
This being the south the greatest emphasis was on football. Our coach was a man named Larry Conklin, and in addition to teaching us football he also spray-painted our helmets purple and dogged us about our grades. I have no idea if he was a YMCA employee or coached as a volunteer, but we worked after school five days a week on the gravel and sand playground, playing our games on Saturday mornings in Chastain Park.
Very few kids wore cleats. You started the year in a new paid of Keds, with your parents hoping your feet wouldn’t outgrow them before you got your sports in for the school year.
I may leave some names out but the other schools in town back then included Highpoint, Liberty Guinn, Hammond, Guy Webb and Spalding. Heards Ferry would come much later.
There are two highlights from that period. The first was about the YMCA sports trophy that was given every year to the team with the best overall record. If one school won the trophy three years running they got to keep the trophy. We did. Hopefully that trophy is in someone’s basement and not in the landfill.
Second, when I was in 6th grade our quarterback was a 7th grader named Matt Robinson. Matt later played at Georgia and in the NFL. I caught a touchdown pass from him in a game - my only score in organized football. Ever. Years later when I was briefly a sports-talk radio producer I leveraged that TD into booking Matt on our morning show.
The new school off Lake Forest will have colors and a mascot but the YMCA no longer has after-school sports here in Sandy Springs. That’s not the worst thing in the world for those kids, but I sit here and think about those days. The memories have lasted 40 years give or take. Not bad as memories go.
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Do you know what’s happening in Sandy Springs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now and again I’ve fussed and fumed like an old scold over the lack of enough of us getting involved and knowing what’s going on around town.
I think it’s a safe bet more Sandy Springsteens know the status of Britney Spears’ mental state than we do what our elected city council members are up to.
The latter has gotten a little easier, meaning there are fewer excuses for being ignorant. Assuming, sadly, anyone was looking for an excuse to be so.
The Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods has launched a Web site that tracks the vote every councilperson has cast from the beginning. That would be Dec. 5, 2005 for you Britney fans.
Simply by clicking past tmz.com over to www.sandyspringscouncil.org, it is now possible to easily pulls one’s head from the sand, know what’s going on, and who voted how to make it so.
The only way it could be more user friendly would be if they gave away coupons for donuts.
And I really do think this is a great idea and a wonderful tool, but there is some sadness that citizenship has to be made so rudimentary.
If you don’t want to make time to go to city council meetings, you can access what happened on several Web sites. You can sign up for e-mail updates from your council representative and stayed informed that way. Assuming you know the name of your council rep.
I get that it takes some extra effort to stay informed. You have to get off your couch, turn off the TV and do something. Conduct an online search, make a phone call, talk to a neighbor, read the paper.
By the time most people become aware of a decision they disagree with it’s usually too late. The discussion is long since ended and the votes have been cast. The battle cry of the uniformed could be: “Nobody told me!”
To which I would reply: “Did you ask?”
There’s that old 60’s pabulum that if you aren’t a part of the solution you’re part of the problem. For the sake of this discussion I would suggest morphing that to: “If you haven’t taken the time to know what’s going on, you might want to keep the old pie hole shut.”
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
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Wow, a nice, fairly balanced article on cycling on the road. Thanks. I am always amused by people who say they hate cyclists on the road because they do not follow the rules. When I cycle, or drive my car, I am amazed at how many drivers refuse... read the full comment by gttim | Comment on Cyclists and motorists can share the road Read Cyclists and motorists can share the road
Funny how drivers in metro ATL complain about cyclists, when for every cyclist on the road there are a few thousdand cars, cars running red lights and stop signs, flying 25 miles over the speed limit, crossing over two lanes at the last second to make a... read the full comment by Funny | Comment on Cyclists and motorists can share the road Read Cyclists and motorists can share the road
Thank you for this small bit of sanity in this ridicules city. I routinely cycle for my enjoyment and health and I am appalled at the rudeness of Atlanta drivers. So much for southern manners, or gentleman for that matter. I have been yelled at and brushed... read the full comment by casy | Comment on Cyclists and motorists can share the road Read Cyclists and motorists can share the road
Well for starters, we need politicans who are not afraid to be unpopular and drill for oil. The environmentalists will hate it but it needs to be done. Secondly, we need to take hard look at the gas tax and where is the money actually going. With all... read the full comment by DRH | Comment on Gas prices have consumers stumped at the pump Read Gas prices have consumers stumped at the pump