“You can get a suspect another day, but you can’t get a life back." These are the words of Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a policy think tank, quoted in a recent AJC article. Photo: erluko/Wikimedia Commons

Today, lawmakers in Georgia passed the Stop Super Speeders bill, HB308, legislation that will allow judges to require speed-limiting technology in the vehicles of drivers who have been convicted of egregious violations like street racing. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Atlanta traffic was terrible. That’s why Satya Bhan never drove but instead walked or biked wherever he went. Sometimes, he rode his electric scooter. But on May 28, 2023, on the way home to Atlantic Station from a fun night out, a driver struck his scooter on a dark stretch of Cheshire Bridge Road, a four-lane thoroughfare lined with businesses and apartment buildings.

Born and raised in East Atlanta, Géoving Gérard, II has biked almost all of the area within I-285 and gained a unique view of people as he documented new connections through photography. “I think the beauty of biking, walking, and other pedestrian-oriented ways of transportation is that I see you as a person,” Geo says.

There was a moment in the ambulance when Veronica Watts stopped breathing. She had just been hit, in a Midtown crosswalk, by a speeding driver who failed to stop. The impact with the driver’s windshield had thrown her 38 feet into the air and sent her skidding across the ground. She awoke in Grady Memorial Hospital, eight hours later, with a tube down her throat and many of her teeth missing. 

When 11 of Atlanta's 15 City Council voting members come together to sponsor a resolution on a controversial topic, it's worth paying attention to. Even more so when the resolution includes the following remarkable phrases:"the confusion reflects a failure of infrastructure design and the City’s indecision as to what Peachtree Street should be" "a decision that is reactionary and takes the path of least resistance over that which prizes Vision Zero principles"