This Blog Has Moved

Dear Reader,

This blog has moved to a new GoDaddy.com "Quick Blog" site I have created.

"The Georgia Road Geek" new blogsite URL is http://blog.georgiaroadgeek.com.

Thanks for your readership and please look for future blogs on the new blogsite.

New I-285 Page And Road News

I-285 Major Interchange Images Page

Dear reader, I have just taken the I-285 major interchange images I had captured from Google Earth and compiled them on a new webpage. Please click here to see them.

In other Georgia road news this week...

Red-Light Camera Ban Proposed

In this year's session of the Georgia General Assembly, there is a proposal (House Bill 77) to ban the red-light cameras. Please click here to read the bill from the Georgia House of Representatives.

To read more about it and how these cameras have been "cash cows" for those local governments currently utilizing them, please click here for the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

State Transportation Officials Want Tolls

Could there be more tolls in our future? If Georgia DOT officials have their way, then the answer is, "Yes." Please click here for the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

GA 400 Toll Violators Offered Reduced Fines

In an effort to collect from GA 400 toll violators, the State Road and Tollway Authority is offering a limited period of fine reduction to those who "jumped the toll" before January 1st. Please click here for the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Southside Steve's Driving Tips

On Atlanta country music station Eagle 106.7 FM's morning show, Southside Steve (formerly of 96 Rock) has been doing a "1000-part series" of his own brand of driving tips.

Some of those have included what type of coffee to drink for all-night trips (really nasty "leaded" stuff), how guys can handle their wives or girlfriends to make them keep from having to take too many "potty breaks" (co-host Dallas McCade was ready to kill him over it), and the stupid drivers he calls T.O.O.Ls. (Totally Out Of Line).

Speaking of T.O.O.Ls, I encountered yesterday morning who was driving really, really slow in the left lane of Clairmont Road between I-85 and Buford Highway. I'm no driving expert (just a "roadgeek"), but IIRC, the left lane is for passing, not "putt-putting"!!

His background music for his segment is Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" (another one of my "roadgeek jukebox" songs) and you can usually hear this particular segment between 6:20 and 6:30 AM weekdays.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and please come back again.

"ROADGEEK-CAM!!!" - GA 400 Tollway NB

This morning around 10 AM, Mary and I were heading home from the Emory area and took the GA 400 tollway on our way back home.

Since we had the camera with us, I took the opportunity to do something I hadn't done in a while... shoot some footage for a brand new episode of "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!".

I've just finished producing and uploading it. Please click here to view it.

Thanks in advance for watching and please come back again.

Aerial Road Photo - Georgia-Florida Pkwy

Recently, I downloaded and installed Google Earth and spent quite a while just virtually zooming all over the place.

Since I now have Google Earth, I decided to use it to capture some aerial road photos around the state (particularly major interchanges) and will eventually compile them onto a webpage.

While zooming in on Thomasville and Thomas County, I stumbled upon the intersection of US 19/GA 3/300 (Georgia-Florida Parkway) and Old Monticello Road (US 19's original route into downtown Thomasville). Here is the photo I captured...

What really intrigued me was the roundabout that exists at this particular intersection. Georgia has very few roundabouts, and what few that do exist tend to be around small town squares such as the one surrounding the old courthouse and gold museum in downtown Dahlonega.

The Georgia-Florida Parkway (GA 300) is a four-lane mostly-divided corridor that runs from I-75 (Exit 99) just south of Cordele to Albany, then joins US 19/GA 3 along the rest of its journey to Camilla, Thomasville, and the Florida state line. Once in Florida, US 19 becomes the Florida-Georgia Parkway as it makes it way south to US 27 in Capps. (Georgia counties traversed: Crisp, Worth, Dougherty, Mitchell, and Thomas).

In other Georgia road news, the Georgia DOT announced that 2 men have been arrested in connection with the graffiti sprayed on overhead signs along the Downtown Connector (I-75/85). Please click here to read the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and please visit often.

More Roadgeek Jukebox Plus Roadgeek Eats

Have you ever just gotten the urge to do something and felt you just had to get it out of your system?

Well, I put together another podcast (click on blog title to access it) talking about more "roadgeek jukebox" stuff, plus "roadgeek eats" to highlight a couple of our favorite places to eat while on the road.

One of those places is Cracker Barrel. Last Sunday after the storytelling festival in Kennesaw, Mary and I had dinner at the one on I-75 at Chastain Road (Exit 271). We've also eaten at their Morrow, GA (I-75 Exit 233), Brunswick, GA (I-95 Exit 36A), and Cleveland, TN (I-75 Exit 25), locations. They've opened a new one in Alpharetta just off US 19/GA 400 at Windward Parkway (Exit 11), and we plan to eat at that one as soon as we can.

My personal "guilty pleasure" is Georgia's own Waffle House. I'm not sure about other places, but here in the Atlanta area, there are stretches of road that have a Waffle House one mile (or less) away from each other. Am I complaining about that? Heck, no!!! They could build a whole mess of them next door to each other and I'd be extremely happy. :)

What are your favorite places to eat when you are on the road? Please e-mail them, plus your "roadgeek jukebox" favorites, to me at webmaster at georgiaroadgeek dot com. I'll even send you a "Georgia Road Geek" magnet (if you want one) as a token of my appreciation, plus give you a plug on both the podcast and the blog.

One more thing... if you look in the upper right-hand corner of this blogpage, you will notice a new section called "Steve's Shared Items", where I'll share some parts of my personal favorite blogs with y'all. The first "shared item" comes from fellow road enthusiast Adam Prince's "Sure, Why Not?" blog, featuring an Interstate 540 sign with the state name on it.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and listening, and please do so often.

My Roadgeek Jukebox

On my first podcast, I started talking about some tunes that I would feature on a "roadgeek jukebox".

Here are some of the songs I would choose...

"Eastbound And Down" - Jerry Reed
"Little Pink Houses" - John Mellencamp
"The Breeze" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Prisoner of the Highway" - Ronnie Milsap
"Ramblin' Man" - The Allman Brothers Band
"Uneasy Rider" - Charlie Daniels Band

There are several others that I would include, but I'm a lot more interested in what you would have on yours. Please e-mail them to webmaster at georgiaroadgeek dot com and I'll give you a plug on the next blog and podcast... plus even mail you a "Georgia Road Geek" magnet if you want one.

Finally, as promised, here's a picture of one of the "oddball speed limit" signs I found last weekend at the Kennesaw State University Center...

This still begs the question "Why not just make it 15 MPH?" :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading my blogs, watching "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!", and for listening to my new podcast. Please come back often.

Podcast Debut

Dear reader, I have decided to add podcasting to "The Georgia Road Geek". (Click on the above blog title to access the podcast.)

Please take some time to listen to my very first one and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance for listening, thanks always for reading, and please visit often.

Lane Flak, Travel Times, And Oddball Limits

Live, from Kennesaw, it's "The Georgia Road Geek"!!! (with apologies to Saturday Night Live) :)

Over the past few days since I posted my last blog regarding the new southbound lanes on US 19/GA 400, I've received feedback... and it hadn't been pretty, y'all.

Fortunately, it's not against me, but instead, the new lanes in question.

For those of you who have not been on 400 lately, the new configuration of 400 southbound between Windward Parkway (Exit 11) and GA 14o/Holcomb Bridge Road (Exit 7) is now 3 main traffic flow lanes with far right lanes that only run between the entrance ramps and the next exit ramp. From Exit 11 to Haynes Bridge Road (Exit 9), there was a net gain of one (1) new lane, but from Exit 9 to Exit 7, the net gain was zero (0).

There is a new far right lane that begins at each entrance ramp, but is an "exit only" lane funnelling traffic into the next exit. Otherwise, you have to shift left at least one lane to get into the main traffic flow.

Given this new southbound 400 configuration, I can see why folks are disappointed. I, too, would've liked to have seen 4 lanes continuous southbound for greater capacity.

Now, about those estimated travel times...

On the morning commute, it is quite common to hear about 30-minute travel times on 400 southbound from Cumming to the Buckhead toll plaza... and I do wonder sometimes if that is truthful, given the propensity for traffic to be quite heavy in Forsyth County. I leave the house by 6 AM most days and travel from McFarland Parkway (Exit 12, closer to Alpharetta than Cumming) to I-285 eastbound (Exit 4A), and it can take a good 20-25 minutes on that stretch alone.

Tonight, my wife and I are in Kennesaw for a festival and I drove straight from work in Northeast Atlanta to I-75 northbound, getting a rare first-hand experience in the crappy traffic of I-85 southbound to the Brookwood interchange (where I-75 and I-85 meet in Midtown Atlanta), and then I-75 northbound to Kennesaw.

On the I-75 stretch, the traffic moved at normal speeds until just after crossing the Chattahoochee River into Cobb County... where the infamous I-75-to-I-575 slowdown occurs. The message boards always give you the distance and travel times to certain points, such as the 75/575 split (Exit 268). While these may be estimates coming from GDOT's traffic command center, I tend to be fairly skeptical sometimes of how much reality is really factored into it... especially when I'm stuck in that dadburn mess!!!

Oh, one more thing before I sign off...

Have you ever encountered an "oddball" speed limit sign that is not in a 5- or 10-MPH increment?

For example, at the Roswell Senior Center, there is a "SPEED LIMIT 8" sign, and here at the Kennesaw State University Center, there is a "SPEED LIMIT 14" sign. Both of these beg the question, "How do you know if you're doing the exact speed limit unless you have a digital speedometer?" :)

Anyhow, I'll try to get a photo of each of those for you and put it on the website. Heck, I might... just might... even shoot some "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!" footage. :)

That's all for now. I'm going to join my wife and listen to some storytellers soon (plus help with the registration booth). Thanks for reading, sharing your thoughts, and please come back again.

New GA 400 SB Lanes To Open Monday

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the new southbound lanes on US 19/GA 400 between Windward Parkway (Exit 11) and GA 14o/Holcomb Bridge Road (Exit 7) will be open tomorrow (Monday). Please click here to read the article.

For all you "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!" fans out there, I'll get some video footage for y'all as soon as possible. In addition to video, I'll snap some photos as well.

As for the "sign goofs" I found on the southbound side, I'll keep y'all abreast on any happenings relating to that matter.

To the Trivunovics of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada... thanks for being the first from outside the U.S. to request an official "Georgia Road Geek" magnet. I just put it in the mail today. If there are any other readers (especially international readers) of this blog who would like a magnet, then please let me know and I'll mail you one as well.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, tell all your friends about us, and please come back again.

My New Ham Tag

After over 3 months of waiting, my amateur (ham) radio license plate finally arrived in today's mail... WOO-HOO!!! :)

During that time, I had to display a flimsy paper Georgia "temporary tag" on my vehicle.

Initially, I had the tag attached to my bumper, but after I discovered it barely hanging on, I immediately taped it to the rear window of my vehicle.

Not long afterward, as I was coming home from work, I was briefly stopped by the Chamblee police, who asked me why I had a tag with "JAN222007" written on it. I explained to the officer that I had an amateur radio tag on order from the state and showed him my registration. He was immediately satisfied and let me go along my way, even stopping traffic on busy Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to help me get out safely.

As for the tag itself, I now know why the county tag office gave me a date of January 22, 2007, on the "temporary tag"... because it takes the state so dadblame long to deliver the real plate to you.

In Georgia, standard license plates cost a vehicle owner $20 per year plus an annual "ad valorem" tax (property tax assessed according the the vehicle's value) imposed by the county where the vehicle is registered. With the ham tag, you only pay the annual county "ad valorem" tax. When renewing your tag each year, you also are required to provide the tag office a copy of your valid FCC Amateur Radio License. For more information on amateur radio license plates, please contact your county's tag office.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and please do so often.

Sign Goofs And Milton County

Yesterday, at Fry's Electronics in Alpharetta, I bought us another digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A530, to add to our digital photography arsenal.

To try it out, I took it with me to work... and don't you know it, I found some "sign goofs" that just virtually begged me to take their pictures. :)

First one was on GA 141/Peachtree Industrial Boulevard (PIB) north at Chamblee-Tucker Road in Chamblee. The sign said "TO I-285" and pointed right, leading one to believe that they should turn there to go to I-285 instead of just proceeding up PIB. It had replaced a prior sign which said "TO I-85".

The second goof was spotted just this morning along US 19/GA 400 southbound between Windward Parkway (Exit 11) and GA 120/Old Milton Parkway (Exit 10). In that particular instance, two (2) new "big green signs" (BGS) for Old Milton were mounted just last night. There was one thing the contractor forgot to include on them... the state route shield for GA 120!!!

Please click here for the special feature page I created for these goofs.

In other Georgia road news, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has proposed improvements for 2 busy major highways in the Atlanta area, Buford Highway (US 23/GA 13) in DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties and Tara Boulevard (US 19/41/GA 3) in Clayton County. Please click here to read the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

And finally, for all you "county clinchers" out there, legislation has been introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives (House Resolution 12) for a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at recreating Milton County from North Fulton County. If the bill passes the General Assembly and is signed by the Governor (which is likely), then it would go before all Georgia voters in a statewide referendum on November, 2008. Please click here to read it.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and please come back again.

Classic Georgia Roadsign Photo - Dahlonega

With permission from the Lumpkin County Library, here is a classic Georgia highway sign photo from the Madeleine K. Anthony Collection of the Chestatee Regional Library System...

The above photo from 1971 shows how the Dahlonega town square looked just before it was revitalized into the much more attractive historic district of today. The University of Georgia, Georgia DOT, several Dahlonega area business and civic organizations, and students from my alma mater, North Georgia College, were all instrumental in this revitalization effort that ultimately resulted in the desirable tourist destination that it has become. Dahlonega's claim to fame is being the site of America's very first gold rush, which occurred in 1828, 21 years before gold was discovered in California.

Here is a photo I had taken in 1998 of roadsigns that existed in the same location 27 years later...

If you ever get the chance, I strongly recommend you visit Dahlonega and take in the history, sights, and scenes. For more information on Dahlonega, visit their official tourism website, www.dahlonega.org.

I thank Anne Amerson of the Lumpkin County Historical Society for e-mailing me the historical photo that I originally saw in the December/January, 2007 edition of "400 Edition", and I thank both Debra Capponi and Claudia Gibson of the Lumpkin County Library for giving me permission to share this classic roadsign photo with y'all.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and please come back again.

Map Dots, More Videos, And Readers

Well, folks, 2007 has arrived and I hope y'all had a happy and safe holiday. This week was time to go back to my "real job" after a nice Christmas/New Years vacation spent with my wife and family... and here is my first blog for the new year...

Map Dots Coming Back

This week, it seems that the Georgia DOT (GDOT) has decided to put more than 400 communties back on the official state highway map.

This controversy has generated news stories both locally and nationally for the past couple of months. Here are links to the latest news in this "map dot saga"...

Tiny Towns Going Back On Highway Map (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

500 Communities Put Back On Georgia Map (Yahoo! News)

While it's too late for the regular-size print 2007 map, they will be back on the large print version to be released this summer by GDOT.

More Videos

Over the last few months of this year, road enthusiasts from all over America have been posting their own road videos.

Recently, Alex Nitzman, co-webmaster of AllAboutRoads (AARoads), has gotten into the act by posting some of his own road videos on YouTube (featuring some Atlanta freeway footage). Please click here to see them.

Last week, I posted the 12th episode of "ROADGEEK-CAM!!!" featuring various Florida road scenes I shot during our Christmas holiday travels to and from Lakeland. Please click here to see it.

... and finally...

Readers

Just yesterday, I decided that I wanted to get a reader so that I can read all my favorite blogs, news, etc., in one convenient portal. I chose Google Reader and so far, I like it. :)

Here are some of the blogs (subscription URL) I have subscribed to (and recommend)...

On The Road (http://blog.aaroads.com)
Ryan's Digital Roadgeekdom (http://ww.r-dub.us/r-blog)
Sure, Why Not? (http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com)

It's quite simple to subscribe to your favorite blog, news feed, etc. If you haven't got a reader yet, then I highly recommend you check out Google Reader.

Coming Next Time (I Hope)....

... a vintage 1970s roadsign photo from Dahlonega town square, pending permission from the picture's owner (Dahlonega Public Library).

Thank you for visiting and please come back again.