GDOT – I owe you an apology and a thank you!

The grates on the Windy Hill connector are, in my opinion, nearly criminal.  They are dangerous and they are problematic.  That being said – my ferocity was wrongly focused on the Georgia Department of Transportation.  It turns out, this road development was not a GDOT project, rather a Cobb County project.  So – on the placement of these wheel eating monsters – GDOT has no liability.

Now – I need to fill you in on a few things here… My neighbor works for GDOT.  He saw my blog post and thought “Wow – Scott has a point here – maybe we should look at this”.  He sent it to his boss (thank you!) and from there apparently a few things bounced around.  I received BUNCHES of emails form concerned cyclist saying “email this dude”… so I did.  Within 8 hours of  my email I received a POLITELY written correction to numerous things (one being who built the road).  The other being a clear clarification of GDOTs stance on bicycle friendly grates.  They have a clear understanding of what the grates can and will do to a bicyclist and have some good policies to protect us in the future.  He sent me a link to their policies document that pertains to bicycles and a flyer for their Sample Grates.  The email was nice and educational.

I’ve also got a few email tickles and stuff that indicate Cobb County is quite aware of this and is planning to weld metal across the grates.  That’s good news … I don’t want a war, I want a safe place for people to ride their bikes as a common method of TRANSPORTATION!

I also heard a dirty little rumor that this road is supposed to be “Limited Access” – aka – We won’t be allowed to ride our bikes on this road.  If this does hit the fan – expect a blog post filled with animosity and discontent…  We will see if this ever happens.  While they poorly designed the road for cyclists, that is normal for Cobb County (and you WONT see a future apology from me on that one!  It is a fact!)