I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in Atlanta that involves busy four-lane roads, Rascals or wheelchairs, and people on these Rascals or wheelchairs with COMPLETE DISREGARD for basic traffic laws and, most troubling, their own bodily safety. Everyone in the city was out today, so the roads and sidewalks were jammed with citizens enjoying the fine weather that could only happen in the dead of winter in Georgia. Everyone including personal mobility device owners.
First today, I saw one wheelchair-bound guy meandering across Ponce de Leon at noon, crossing from City Hall East to the Whole Foods center (50 yards from the actual crosswalk) while fifteen cars slammed on their brakes. This reminded me of the time I was at the Local well after dark and spotted a woman in an electric wheelchair puttering west on Ponce in the right lane (not sidewalk) while completely absorbed in composing a text message.
So à la Highlights for Children, here’s a lesson for Atlanta Rascal owners:
Goofus creeps his Rascal across a confusing intersection between DeKalb Avenue and Moreland where the sidewalks are not handicap accessible and people drive like rage-filled maniacs.
Gallant takes his special lady friend and their his ‘n’ hers Rascals to the park where they may safely cruise on sidewalks and enjoy the scenery.
Tags: goofus and gallant, PSA, rascals
This all started when a rascal type company decided that everyone in the building on the corner of Ponce De Leon and North Highland were not using their blue cross blue shield benefits if they all did not own a hum around… these senile and now newly mobile elderly people began using the new fangled contraptions in the manor of cars riding them on the open road, mainly due to the fact that they became senile before such motorized forms of transportation were used on sidewalks…. “if it has a motor i should be on the road with it” mentality… it is especially frustrating when they park in parking spaces in the Ponce De Leon whole foods parking lot and then walk inside.
Clint, you have made so many astute points I can’t even address them all. A legal scholar WOULD in fact call them “vehicles” – but we don’t ride 4-wheelers on Ponce de Leon Ave. There are laws against this. Maybe not in in Henry County. This all goes to say, I need to go to Whole Foods more often just to be outraged even more by Rascal owners, like you.