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Health & Fitness

Why Atlanta Got What It Deserved

Since my house has small closets, I have to follow a certain pattern when it comes to clothing: some of it needs to be dirty and in laundry baskets under the bed, some of it needs to be in the clothes dryer waiting to be folded, and some needs to be in the closet - which does not have the capacity to handle things if all the laundry is cleaned, folded and put away at the same time. 

At least that's what I tell my wife. 

But as it turns out, Atlanta appears to be a lot like that. I am of course talking about the devastating and rare snowstorm that hit the area this week that essentially shut the city down. When the snow fell, it appeared that everyone got into their cars all at once and headed home - the equivalent of trying to fit every article of clothing into a small closet. 

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Then Atlanta's nightmare started. We've all seen the images of people sleeping in grocery stores using a roll of paper towels as a pillow (and they're the lucky ones), people posting on social media from their stranded cars, and so on. 

Now that National Guard has been called in to deal with the problem of stranded motorists the finger pointing has begun. The party line from elected officials is all about blaming the weather forecasters. I actually heard on the news this morning that meteorologists didn't want to get 'thrown under the bus' with this disaster, but there's so much ice still on the roads any meteorologist will probably slide safely out from under the bus, so it's not really a big deal.

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But Atlanta has to forget the meteorologists and point the finger squarely at itself. I'm not belittling the individuals who were stuck in their cars or separated from their children - that has to be scary - but once the adults are safe, with their families, and warming up with hot cocoa I want to ask them a few questions:

How many bond issues did your city pass to improve and expand public transportation? How much of the DOT budget goes toward bike lanes, bike paths and pedestrian facilities - and do you regularly fight for more? How much money was allocated for ad campaigns to carpool or take bicycles for short trips? Have any regulations been passed to discourage sprawl? Has your city or state raised car taxes or otherwise created economic disincentives to have a car for every man, woman and child in your family? 

I think we know the answers. But I want to hear them anyway.

To cities like Atlanta, the car culture is like a movie star that isn't aging gracefully but is taking great pains to hide its ugliness. Some people equate driving to freedom, give their cars names and swear they are never giving them up. Sadly, some just don't understand that when every living person is doing the same thing, the only freedom anyone has is what to listen to on the radio when they're stuck in traffic for hours on end. 

In Car Culture Land, however, traffic doesn't exist. I've never seen a Ford Mustang ad filmed on I-95 during rush hour, nor have I seen a Porsche commercial where the iconic sports car is stuck at a red light in a busy intersection. And that's exactly the problem: it doesn't matter how much horsepower you have or what the zero to sixty time of your car is because you are always are at the mercy of whatever driver in whatever vehicle happens to be in front of you. The careful motorists in Atlanta who spent more than 20 hours in their immobile cars with good tires and/or a four wheel drive can attest to that. 

But probably everyone who has driven a car in a city or on a highway understands this as well: every vehicle, including your own, is a point of failure. One car blocking the box, one single-car accident, one lane closed can disrupt a commute for thousands. And because the population is climbing, debacles like Atlanta's are going to become more common unless priorities on infrastructure change, and change radically.  As much as we all like to bash Millennials, it appears they are already ahead of the curve by not wanting to own cars as much as previous generations - something urban planners and government leaders need to remember. 

After all of the cheese ravioli MRE's have been eaten and the last of the cars have been towed from their resting places, Atlanta and other cities need to wise up and make public transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities a priority instead of an afterthought. If they don't, I expect their taxpayers to foot the bill each and every time the National Guard has to solve their traffic problems for them. 

Mike Norris is the founder of DIYBIKING.COM, a site dedicated to casual cycling, random builds, and bike travel. He is a member of the Connecticut Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Board who owns one 3,300 lb. SUV and 11 1/16 bicycles. He lives and works in Stamford and can be reached at connecticutmike@gmail.com

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