Different vehicle capabilities justify some different rules—bikes can filter or use shoulders where cars cannot, and neither has the same expectations as a pedestrian on a sidewalk-less road—but the bulk of the rules of the road are shared precisely because bikes and cars occupy the same lanes and intersections. Both travel on the right, yield the right-of-way at uncontrolled intersections according to the same priority order, signal turns, stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, obey one-way designations and lane markings, and refrain from entering an intersection they cannot clear. Nighttime lighting, impaired operation bans, and the duty to control speed for conditions apply to both. These overlapping rules create the predictability that lets mixed traffic function without constant negotiation. Capability differences can support narrow exceptions (stop-as-yield in low-volume settings, or sidewalk access where local law allows it), but those exceptions sit on top of a large common framework, not in place of it. Treating the entire rule set as optional for one group and mandatory for the other is what produces the conflicts, not the recognition that the two are not identical.

The time has come,' the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.' But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried, Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!' No hurry!' said the Carpenter. They thanked him much for that. ~Lewis Carroll content.govdelivery.com/acco…

We invented notifications because we were afraid people might enjoy being unreachable.

O suns and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October’s bright blue weather; When loud the bumblebee makes haste, Belated, thriftless vagrant, And goldenrod is dying fast, And lanes with grapes are fragrant; When gentians roll their fringes tight To save them for the morning, And chestnuts fall from satin burrs Without a sound of warning; When on the ground red apples lie In piles like jewels shining, And redder still on old stone walls Are leaves of woodbine twining; When all the lovely wayside things Their white-winged seeds are sowing, And in the fields, still green and fair, Late aftermaths are growing; When springs run low, and on the brooks, In idle golden freighting, Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush Of woods, for winter waiting; When comrades seek sweet country haunts, By twos and twos together, And count like misers, hour by hour, October’s bright blue weather. O suns and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together, Love loveth best of all the year October’s bright blue weather. ~Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885)

“Either way, never put a safety project up for Yes/No vote.” Statist thinking in a nutshell right there, whether or not the practices actually prevent injuries or save lives. Unelected technocrats, engineers, or planners would then impose physical changes on streets that residents use daily, without a referendum that could reject them. That is the political move: declare the public too ignorant or too selfish to weigh a few seconds of driving time against someone else’s risk, then take the decision away from them. Once “safety” is allowed to cancel a vote on speed humps, the same logic covers anything else planners can label a public-health or climate project. American political culture was built against exactly this habit. The country did not start from the premise that the people who live on a street are the last people who should decide what happens to it. Consent of the governed was the point. Town meetings, county boards, and neighborhood votes were how ordinary people kept control of the ground under their feet. Experts could advise. They were not supposed to rule. The American suspicion of concentrated power is not a denial that some designs are safer than others. It is a claim about who gets to live with the trade-offs. A planner who never has to wait behind a bus gate, lose a parking space in front of a shop, or watch an ambulance slow for a hump does not bear the cost the resident does. That is why Americans have historically treated local streets, schools, and land use as matters for people who actually live there, not for a professional class that answers only to models and mission statements. If voters cannot be trusted with a speed hump, they cannot be trusted with much else that shapes daily life. That is not a safety argument. It is an argument that the public is unfit for self-government. American culture has always treated that claim as the thing to resist, not the thing to implement.

秋の窓 国を尋ねば 車ばかり Autumn window— I ask after the country and find only cars.

The High Museum of Art, as seen from the patio of Refuge Coffee. Where do you think they should put the Gulf sign? Where to putthe Krystal sign? 😉

Today is day 261 of van life. If all goes well, a concert today, a minor van repair, and some gift buying. Fall has fell: High temperature today is expected to be 20°F than recent daytime highs.

Here’s the updated opening: Fascinating to see the Beltline ranked as Atlanta's number one tourist destination, especially given the persistent downtown-first view that the Centennial Olympic Park cluster should remain the city’s main visitor destination. So are there political and economic tensions between them at work? Yes, there is a real but mostly implicit tension, even if official tourism marketing treats the two as complementary rather than rivals. Downtown’s Centennial Olympic Park cluster (Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, Civil Rights Center, stadiums, Georgia World Congress Center) is still sold as Atlanta’s compact “tourist district” and convention/event hub. The Beltline, by contrast, is increasingly described as the city’s signature way to experience neighborhoods, food, art, and the outdoors, with more than 2.5 million visits a year and billions in associated private investment. Guides routinely recommend both in the same itinerary—start at Olympic Park in the morning, then head to the Eastside Trail and Ponce City Market—rather than declaring a single winner. The conflict surfaces more clearly in money and power than in visitor rankings. Hotel-motel tax revenue has long been locked into downtown stadiums. A large share (historically 39.3 percent of the 7 percent rate) services bonds for Mercedes-Benz Stadium through the late 2040s. Advocates who call the Beltline Atlanta’s top tourist draw argue that money should instead support Beltline trails and rail once existing stadium commitments loosen. That exact argument appeared in the recent funding discussion around a $7 billion transit package. Downtown interests and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority have a structural claim on the same tax stream because it was originally dedicated to the Georgia Dome and its successor. Political power tracks the same divide. Mayor Andre Dickens paused the Eastside Beltline rail extension in 2025, citing cost, construction disruption to existing businesses, and equity questions. City Council then passed a unanimous resolution in September 2026 directing the mayor, MARTA, and Atlanta Beltline Inc. to produce a full 22-mile rail implementation and funding plan by January 2027. Council members framed the pause as yielding to “wealthy business interests” along the already-successful Eastside Trail. Opponents, including the group Better Atlanta Transit, counter that a $3.5 billion circumferential rail line would soak up scarce More MARTA sales-tax dollars that could go to higher-ridership or more equitable projects and would change the trail’s current character. Tax-allocation districts add another layer. The Beltline TAD has generated far more increment than most other districts and funded trails and parks, yet critics note only a small share has gone to affordable housing while property values soared. Downtown and Westside TADs, plus a newly proposed Downtown Enterprise Zone tied to World Cup activity, compete for similar future increment and political attention. The result is a recurring contest over whose vision of Atlanta—the concentrated Olympic-era downtown core or the distributed, neighborhood-connecting Beltline—gets first claim on limited public capital and political bandwidth. Both sides claim tourist and economic benefits; neither has fully displaced the other. So maybe this is really all about tourism, and not about local citizen transit convenience at all. That would not surprise me, because it perfectly fits in with Atlanta's last half century or so of history. The choices and outcomes and their impact on Intown Atlanta will be tangible and quite telling.