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The numbers are staggering and climbing every year. In 2022 there were 35,092 people were killed in car crashes in the US. Thirty Five Thousand!! To put it into perspective, that is like the whole City of Kennesaw being killed in car crashes! The numbers are not any better for this year. So far in the first half of 2023 17,775 people were killed in auto crashes. That is staggering! It’s more than the population of the City of Fayetteville. Of course there are many factors for the increase in roadway deaths. The largest spike is because of distracted driving by people looking at their smartphones! There’s also the increased number of drivers on the roads, as well as younger, more distracted drivers, the rudest generation of drivers ever, as well as more miles being driven. In response the sharp increase in auto fatalities, the federal government announced recently that they have a goal of reducing roadway deaths [...]

Living in Atlanta you come to realize that we have more than 4 seasons. Along with Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, we have many sub-seasons in Atlanta, even more important than the four traditional seasons. For example, we have just started college football season, which is arguably the most important and most eagerly anticipated season of the year. We also have hunting season which, for many people, is the highlight of their year. Then we have the much less popular pollen season that begins when the first yellow dot lands on our cars and seemingly never ends. Allergy sufferers despise pollen season. In fact, the only people that probably like pollen season are those who own car washes. Fast forward up present day, and we have moved into the least popular season of them all, traffic season. You might have thought that traffic season started a few weeks ago when the schools in the metro area started back [...]

The $2 Billion proposed truck lanes which are proposed to be built along the I-75 stretch between Macon and McDonough will be the first of its kind in the United States. The two barrier -separated lanes, 40 miles of them, will be free for truckers and will go only in the Northbound direction right into Atlanta and beyond...

The center turn lane on Windy Hill Road between Cobb Parkway and the Circle 75 Parkway, where all the construction is going on for the new stadium, has been called a ‘suicide lane’ because of the excessive car accidents which happen there.  And so, the lane will be closed and will be turned into a raised median. The stretch that is affected is just west of I-75. And although the lane will be closed immediately, the construction of the median will take up to nine months, according to the county. The change will mean drivers won’t be able to make left turns from that part of Windy Hill except at the intersections with traffic lights.   “The center lane in that particular section of Windy Hill Road has been dangerous for years,” said the Cobb County Transportation Director, Jim Wilgus. “It has been called the ‘suicide lane’ because drivers can enter the center lane from either direction, causing [...]

If you’re driving in Atlanta this weekend, the following are the construction sites to be aware of: Along I-285 ~ The Northbound and Southbound on-ramps will be closed at the Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway exit until 5am Monday. I-20 ~ Two Westbound lanes will be closed between the Downtown Connector interchange and Hamilton E. Holmes Drive until 5 am Monday. I-20 ~ Three Westbound lanes will be closed between McDaniel Street and Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard until 5am on Monday. Two Eastbound lanes will close between Fulton Industrial Boulevard and the I-285 interchange until 5am Monday. The closure will allow crews to restripe the roadway. One Eastbound lane and shoulder will close between Hamilton E. Holmes Drive and Langhorn Street from 5am to 11pm on Sunday. Two Eastbound lanes and shoulder will be closed between Langhorn Street and the Downtown Connector interchange until 5am Monday. The following ramps will close for up to three (3) hours between 8am [...]

Every April, Consumer Reports gives advice for new and used buyers in its annual auto issue.  This year, a trio of Asian and European names top the tally: Audi, Subaru and Lexus. They scored an 80, 8 and 76, respectively, on a 100-point scale that measures the overall score, road-test score, and predicted reliability results from the magazines extensive auto tests. Here’s a quick rundown of the top 10 best brands: Audi: 80 Subaru: 78 Lexus: 76 Porsche: 76 BMW: 76 Mazda: 74 Buick: 74 Toyota: 72 Kia: 72 Honda71 Of course, most people are used car buyers, not new car buyers. And with the average used vehicle costing half of what it costs new, with 80% of its life left, that would make buying used instead of new a very smart buy! If you are buying a car, use these helpful ‘Used Car Tips!’ Arrange your used auto financing first. Look at credit unions, online banks or [...]

GM has hopes of speeding the development of self-driving cars, has now acquired a small software company and has been testing vehicles on the streets of San Francisco, and other cities. The Detroit automaker says it purchased Cruise Automation, a 40-person firm that was founded just three years ago. The move, coupled with GM’s in-house research, should help the company in its race with Google and others to have autonomous cars start transporting people on public roadways. GM wouldn’t give a timetable for rolling out the technology, but President Dan Ammann said it would happen as soon as the company can demonstrate that the cars are ready. “It’s our view that driverless technology will be demonstrably safer than the human driver.” Ammann said in a recent interview. Cruise Automation, along with Google, is among the few companies with permits to test the cars, said Kyle Vogt, the company’s founder and CEO. The company is working to tackle the [...]

The Ford Motor Co. has established a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary to build and invest in new mobility options like car-sharing and ride-hailing services. Ford Smart Mobility LLC will be chaired by former Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett, who has been a member of Ford’s board since 2013. Hackett resigned his board seat last week to lead the new company. Form Smart Mobility plans to name a CEO in the near future. The company will operate in Palo Alto, Calif., and Ford’s hometown of Dearborn, Mich. Ford CEO Mark Fields said the company will be ‘separate but connected’ to its parent. Fields said Ford won’t initially include the company in its financial reporting, but may do so once its more firmly established. “We wanted to make sure to give it the freedom and the flexibility to move almost like tech companies do,” Fields said. Ford Smart Mobility will build, design and invest in services like car-sharing or ride-hailing. Ford has [...]

Governor Nathan Deal and the state DOT's leadership recently unveiled a myriad of projects that will be built with the $900 million per year allotment that was voted in by legislators. There are 45 road-widening projects on GA state highways. Important freight corridors such as US27 in the west Georgia and US 441 in the east will finally be fully widened into four lanes. The transformation will be the most stunning in metro Atlanta. There are plans to see some $11.5 billion in new construction. Express lanes, like the ones currently that are currently  being built on I-75 and I-575, will be built across the entire top half of I-285. The plans call for rebuilding both interchanges of I-20 and I-285 to meet much larger traffic demands. There will also be new express lanes on GA 400, I-285N to McGinnis Ferry Road. Together, these projects will create a North Side Network of optional toll lanes. That will benefit [...]

The Justice Department recently sued Volkswagen over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the US, potentially exposing  the company to billions in fines for clean-air violations. The complaint against the German automaker, filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency in US District Court in Detroit, alleges the company illegally installed software designed to make its "clean diesel" engines pass federal emissions standards while undergoing  laboratory testings.  The vehicles then switched off those measures to boost performance in real-world driving conditions, which caused them to spew out  green house gases at up to 40 times the rate allowed,  under federal environmental standards. Car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems breach the public  trust, endanger public health and disadvantage  its competitors," said John Cruden, the Assistant  Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. The company is in the midst of negotiating a massive mandatory [...]

More than 1300 people have died on Georgia's roads this year. And 25% of those deaths were the result of drunken driving!   Governor Nathan Deal warned listeners to a Public Service Announcement that aired statewide on television and radio throughout the holiday season, "Watch Your Speed," "Put down Your Phone," "Don't Drive If You've Been Drinking!"   For months, state officials have been alert to an unwelcome change:  After falling annually for nine straight years, Georgia's traffic deaths were up this year.  Figures compiled by the state Department of Transportation and released through the Governor's Office of Highway Safety show that traffic deaths in Georgia fell each year from 2005-2014, going from 1,729 to 1,170, even as the US Census estimates show the state added about 1 million residents.  But, Georgia roadway deaths for 2015 hit 1,345 as of last week. That's up 16%, from 2014. According to state data, the 1,345 does include the 6 people [...]

Automakers used the Thanksgiving holiday deal-making to keep U.S. sales  up on their unprecedented home run in November, which was aided by the  stronger economy, and the cheaper fuel prices to really encourage truck buyers back into the game. Throughout  the industry sales have exceeded 18 million sales rate for a record third straight month, making 2015 one of the best years ever for automakers.  Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co beat analysts' estimates with increases of at least 3.4%.  GM Co and Ford Motor Co posted less aggressive profit gains, yet still made headway in profitable trucks. Sales for the Volkswagen AG's brand got caught up in an emissions-testing scandal, which caused at 25% plunge. The surge is owed in part to buyers who have been calmed down by the increase of job and wage growth, along with the low interest rates and the gasoline prices of the last few weeks, which caused a 28% lesser [...]

The plans for the proposed multi-use bridge over Interstate 285 to connect the Galleria complex with the new Atlanta Braves Stadium is being met with praise and caution. Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairman, Tim Lee's decision last month to delay the go-ahead on the project, will allow the group that owns the Cobb  Galleria, as well as the real estate co that owns much of the Galleria Campus, to gather more information needed to make a decision on the project. Last week, Earl Smith, a former county chairman and member of the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority's Board, said he and other members of the board have been pushing for this delay since the preliminary designs for the bridge were presented to the board in early July. "We need to get everything on the table that we think will affect us and the bridge.  I think this gives us a lot of time to get all [...]

General Motors has agreed to pay $900 million to avoid criminal prosecution over the deadly ignition-switch scandal.  As this deal was struck it brought harsh criticism down on the Justice Department for not bringing criminal charges against the individual employees involved. The switches, which are known to slip out of the run position and cut off the engine, have been linked to over 170 deaths. Despite evidence that GM's legal and engineering staff people concealed the problem for nearly a decade, no employees have been charged.  Still though, the US Attorney Preet Bharara said the investigation is still going on.  Also this past week, GM announced that it will spend $575 million to settle the majority of the civil lawsuits filed over the scandal. Under the new deal with prosecutors, an independent monitor will be appointed to oversee GM's handling of all safety problems in the future.  Two charges that were drawn up against GM, the wire fraud [...]

What's up with all the new Traffic Circles in Georgia? 15 years ago these circles, commonly known as roundabouts, were only popular in large European cities like Paris, or in Washington, DC, which was, in fact, designed as a smaller version of Versailles in France by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. Some streets in the Nation's Capital were laid out in a grid, others horizontally, and still others were circular. This was a wonderful effect in the Capital City, but what about elsewhere in the nation, and in particular, here in Georgia.  About 10-15 years ago Georgia had only a few dozen roundabouts and they were typically confined to small neighborhood streets in small towns.  But in recent years, they have been popping up on all kinds of roads throughout the state. About 144 have been built in Georgia since 2005.  More than 110 are in various stages of design, and more than 20 are under construction.  In the 1990s [...]

Clayton County accident report states that on  September 12, 2015, Driver 2 was stopped at the light, in the SB lanes on SR 314 at E Pleasant Hill Road when Vehicle 1 ran into the back of Vehicle 2, pushing Vehicle 2 into the middle of the intersection.  Driver 1 stated that as he approached Vehicle 2, changing lanes, she assumed that Driver 2 was about to pull off.  She rear-ended Vehicle 1 and there was damage to both vehicles was extensive. There were no injuries in Vehicle 2 but Driver 2 had complaints of back and neck pain. Driver 1 was cited for following too close.  Note:  Slow down when you approach any stopped vehicle. Don't 2nd guess another driver! 

Atlanta has been called The Little Big Apple and is also known as the Crossroads of the South.  And for this Labor Day all roads lead right smack into our city.  The Holiday, which actually starts before the weekend, for some travelers arrived on Wednesday or Thursday. And throughout the weekend our fair city is expected to host between 500,000 and 800,000 visitors this weekend to visit family & friends for graduation parties, birthday parties and cookouts, or to attend one or more of the  100's of events planned to celebrate the long Labor Day Weekend and what that means is that we have forming right this very minute a 'perfect storm of chaos' brewing in the city.  And throw into that mix, the predicted thunderstorms each day, we are looking at a horrendous traffic scenario all weekend, all over Atlanta, both inside and outside the  perimeter. For starters, one of the largest events scheduled is the 29th [...]

As temperatures soar during the end of the summer motorists are becoming as hot under the collar, as they are in on the roadway, as delays on the connector and  I-285 continue to have big trouble spots. We've watched as 4 lanes of Downtown Connector in both directions shut down between Capitol Avenue and the 10th Street for striping and paving, as the NB I-285 lanes closed in two directions, the 2 lanes between Old National Hwy and Camp Creek Pkwy, and even 1 lane has closed off and on from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to the I-20 connector on the west side. On the other side of town the I-285 entrance and exit ramps from Glenwood Road to Chamblee Tucker Road have closed from time to time.  On any given day one or the other side of I-285 will be closed down on the NB or the SB side and on the 3 EB lanes between [...]

Marietta has a new project in East Cobb that is expected to begin this fall and is also expected to cause a myriad of traffic delays for the area for the next two years.  The project,  an almost  $42 million, 54" water main replacement,  will span for miles and will replace segments of a 50-year-old water main pipe.  This project is scheduled to begin near the Indian Hills Country Club and run along  Lower Roswell Road and Terrell Mill Roads through the intersection of Cobb  Pkwy and Terrell Mill Road. Glenn Page, General Manager of the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority stated that the pipe will begin at one of the county's two water plants, Quarles Water Treatment Plant on Lower Roswell Road.  Ultimately, this pipeline will go all the way across Cobb to the western border against Paulding County and down near the 75/285 exchange." The later sections of the project have not been planned as of yet, but [...]