I'd hoped to find more info or impressions here on this topic as the debate continues
I went to the hearing last night at the Atlanta Country Club, and I went to the hearing last week at the Cobb Govt Ctr County Commission meeting room. Last week I was heartened because so many cyclists were there, many more than residents in support of the ban, but after last night I am depressed. I arrived late and so was first actually in the back of the residents-for-the-ban meeting room, with the cyclists in the room behind it, but what bothered me most were two things -
1. The residents still seemed to be operating under the impression that we (cyclists) are a nuisance not to be tolerated except under their gracious sufferance, not the legal road users we are under current law and no one seemed to be bringing this home to them
2. I had learned before the last meeting that the commissioner that proposed this ordnance, Thompson, was my actual representative to the commission because his district apparently wraps around 285 to encompass my community. I had sent him a very polite and thoughtful letter, free of anger or rude rhetoric. At the end of the meeting last night I approached him and introduced myself as one of his constituents and mentioned that I had sent him a letter, but that I hoped he was reconsidering his proposal at this point. I gotta say, I thought the guy was rude. He struck me as wanting to just blow me off. He told me that Columns was not a park and that the residents were basically in need of relief. It certainly seemed as if the relief he is seeking is in the form of pushing this ban through?
I heard proposals and statements that were so overwhelmingly popular, like speed bumps and demanding cyclists stay 'inside' the white line....
Sometimes I really wish I lived someplace more progressive! I can't escape feeling that you buy a home at Columns knowing in advance what the road use is, so why are you complaining? I think it's akin to buying a home in the French Quarter but then trying to ban drinking and partying.....