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BiPass Spaghetti Junction Scoot to Work

Sep 24, 2006

I live in the Atlanta area and we have a widely known monstrosity called, Spaghetti Junction.image of spaghetti junction from fhwa siteThis old image doesn't really do the mess of roads justice as it shows the roadway as an engineering marvel as opposed to the site that drivers see every day, the same picture of roadways packed bumper to bumper with cars, SUVS, Semi's and more stuck not moving anywhere. People in the Atlanta area are warned not to venture onto the interstate without three quarters of a tank of gass, pleanty of water, a little food and maybe a blanket as the interstate routinely gets shut down for several hours on end with accidents and worse.

Its a series of over passes that loop around criss crossing 2 interstates, one highway and 2-3 other streets as well.

It combines the worst traffic of Interstate 85 and Interstate 285 all in one nice big mess of a traffic jam first thing in the morning and from about 3:30 until 7 pm at night.

Part of the problem with the interstate system around the Atlanta area is that everyone drives a separate car to work. Now even if you are not a member of Greenpeace or something, too many people with too many cars some of which are oversized as well, fills up the roadways such that the interstate becomes a parking lot.

We've got to find some better ways to travel because the gridlock is going to bring our society to a hall whether or not the earth heats up or cools down and sends the human race the way of the dinosaur.

About a year ago, I chose to start driving a small motorcycle, when I need to haul my lonesome self around somewhere. Many tweens and teenagers and even a few college students have taken to getting around on electric scooters.

I think the idea of an electric scooter has some potential. These things can go up to 20 MPH up big hills and can go for almost 12 miles before they need a charge. They can carry a 400 lb person (or maybe two adults riding tandem, which would be really funny to see in the middle of a traffic jam on Spaghetti Junction.)

Maybe someday as the train system expands out around the Atlanta area, people will be able to trek to the train station on an electric scooter and ride the train into the city, and ride the scooter the rest of the way to the office where they can charge it up for a return trip that night.

Something has got to give, maybe a generation that has grown up with electric scooters will pave the way.

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WooHoo ed by Unknown at 1:50 PM  


1 Gabbles(comments):

Hey Colleen, that is pretty funny. I hadn't heard of Malfunction Junction. Hopefully, I won't get stuck there any time soon.

Unknown said...
9:17 PM  

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