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• Good Old
Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
July 15,2021
From the Staff
It’s a two way road
for cyclists and motorists
By Dan Pool
Editor
The reaction online after the state put
out information regarding new laws for cy
clist safety was much what I expected - get
off the road.
I generally don’t mention the fact I have
enjoyed riding a road bike around north
Georgia for the past 20 years as I’m aware
the hobby ranks alongside phone scam
criminal in public approval. But I can draw
on my experience over the past two
decades to offer some insight for both my
fellow drivers and cyclists, knowing full-
well this editorial will make both groups,
plus road planners and tourism advocates,
angry.
I would like to first note I’ve never had
any serious interaction with a car or driver
in all the years of regular riding. Maybe the
luck will hold (knock on wood).
Here are a few points I would ask you
to consider both as a driver and for any cy
clists reading this:
• “Bicycles shouldn’t be allowed in
public streets.” They are allowed, it’s
legal, get over it. Keep in mind that many
(some estimates are a majority) of those
riding aren’t out for fun, but use a bike be
cause its affordable or they can’t legally
drive.
Certainly not speaking for fellow cy
clists, but myself and several other bike
riders I know are mostly one step ahead of
people asking us to get off the roads. Quite
a few people who have ridden in this area
for decades prefer to ride more and more
on gravel roads or in the area to the west of
Highway 411 and Carters Lake. The in
creasing traffic on most north Georgia
roads have made quite a few riders re-think
routes.
• Motorists should respect cyclists,
but cyclists also need to respect traffic
Pardon the pun, but it’s a two-way street.
Drivers need to show caution when passing
bikes. Despite the jokes over the years, no
one wants to kill a guy in spandex - it
would be a real hassle legally and shoot
your insurance bills out of sight.
However, many online commenters are
right when they complain that not all roads
are suitable for biking. It’s ludicrous, rude
and reeks of entitlement to ride Cove Road,
the main thoroughfare between our
county’s large gated communities and
Jasper, late on a Saturday morning. But
keep in mind that someone from outside
the area may incorrectly assume a road
leading to mountain retirement communi
ties would be slow-paced and friendly. In
reality Cove, Yellow Creek and all of High
way 53 are filled with rises and sharp
curves, no shoulder and way too much traf
fic for a group of cyclists to clog up at 10
miles an hour on the uphills.
• Pickens is not a great cycling desti
nation, except for the Talking Rock Na
ture Preserve - The area has had some
success bringing the BRAG ride with its
hundreds of tourists to town a few times
over the years. BRAG (Bicycle Ride
Across Georgia) organizers change routes
every year so it’s not often that Jasper will
have a chance to host and reap the eco
nomic benefit.
However, it’s false advertising to pro
mote this area for cycling on a regular
basis. Sure, the scenery is great and the ter
rain challenging but there are simply not
enough back roads to link together. It’s odd
that in the more populated Gordon and
Bartow counties, there are more less-trav
elled backroads.
The exception to this is the Talking
Rock Nature Preserve, locally called “the
mountain bike park.” Bill Jones and South
eastern Trust for Parks and Land have
never been given enough credit for drop
ping this tremendous asset here, nor are the
mountain bikers who maintain their own
park - no tax money went to that awesome
set of trails and it draws a tremendous
number of mountain bikers who don’t get
on any pavement but still bring tourist dol
lars.
• Bike lanes are rarely a solution
That extra stretch of asphalt may help but
it’s not a practical widespread answer. In
big vacation towns around the country,
having whole separate lanes dedicated to
bikes, walkers, and other recreational uses
is a great draw and asset. The Silver Comet
Trail is a big boost to tourism along it but
it was a regional effort. Something piece
meal that doesn’t link together is more a
waste of tax dollars and asphalt. The prob
lem from a cycling perspective is the lanes
along the sides of the road are often filled
with debris, car parts and broken bottles
waiting to cause a flat tire or crash and the
lanes tend to end abruptly at narrow spots
on the roads.
One idea that has surfaced several times
in the past 10 years is to create some kind
of dedicated path along the railroad from
Tate to Talking Rock. That would be a
home run in drawing some of the tourists
heading north into stopping here. It has
never gotten off the ground, but remains a
heck of an idea.
There is nothing finer than cruising
down a pleasant country backroad with
mountain scenery on a cool morning in
north Georgia. There is no better way to see
the countryside and get some exercise. And
hopefully drivers will be cautious as they
pass cyclists.
And to fellow cyclists please find routes
where you aren’t creating a rolling traffic
jam and recognize that the people who live
alongside those country lanes also have tun
hobbies they want to get to on a weekend
morning and do your part to let them get
by and on with their lives.
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
Ponderings of a Simple Man
By Caleb Smith
Summer Hiatus
The Simple Man is taking
some time off, contemplating
his options for a rugged,
manly vacation which may
include hiking the Ap
palachian Trail, or a African
safari, possibly a vision
quest.
He assures his editor that
should he survive his sea
sonal adventure (and his wife
actually lets him leave the
county) he will have a ton of
new tales to relate in this
space in the future.
[Caleb Smith is a long
time, award-winning, colum
nist for the Progress.]
WEATHER
By William Dilbeck
HI
LOW
RAIN
July
06
82
66
.00
July
07
80
66
.64
July
08
80
65
.05
July
09
76
67
.66
July
10
81
67
.15
July
11
78
68
.24
July
12
80
64
.47
If you spot a
mistake,
Contact our editor
dpool@
pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia. Entered
at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia. 30143 as Mail Matter of Second
Class. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PICKENS COUNTY
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is>d)ooI
OTHER VOICES
Don’t send black balloons
By Melissa Lowrie
I never truly grasped why
Nora Ephron felt bad about
her neck.
I mean, I understood
while reading her essay that
she was aging and depressed
about it, but—in my admitted
naivety—didn’t stop to think
I’d ever feel bad about my
neck. Ephron’s book (I Feel
Bad About My Neck: And
Other Thoughts on Being a
Woman) was published in
2006; the essay ran in Vogue
in ’03. She would have been
in her 60s.
I’m old enough to under
stand my neck isn’t going to
improve. This is something
people with young, taut
necks don’t waste time on.
(See above.)
Somewhere I lost track of
my youth. Perhaps it was
sometime during the mar
riage, raising kids and work
ing I misplaced it. The line
about being “older and
wiser” is a load. You look
like a wrinkled bag, but
you’re so worldly! Give me a
break. Do young people be
lieve that? What a terrible ex
change. In my experience,
young people aren’t con
cerned with being older or
wiser. They’re too busy look
ing good and having fun to
worry about future frivolities.
To the adults who truly
celebrate and embrace birth
days, great! Enjoy! I haven’t
looked forward to a birthday
since I turned 18. (It was the
legal drinking age at the
time.) A birthday marks the
passage of time, year by year,
until your number gets too
big to be associated with a vi
able human. I’m currently
butting up against a mile
stone birthday, the kind that
ends in a zero and hilarious
people send black balloons. I
look upon this number with
malice.
My peers have conversa
tions around subjects like re
tirement, hormones, empty
nests, and downsizing. What
did we talk about when we
were young and interesting?
Before we became absorbed
in supplements, long-term
care insurance or a new roof
for the house? Hell, I’m too
old to remember, but I do
need to order a new water fil
ter.
I too, feel bad about my
neck. Sad, more accurately.
And my face and body. I
don’t want to mess with a frill
facelift. There’s too much
risk of coming out like
Melissa Rivers, who must
use her late mother Joan’s
plastic surgeon. She and I are
close in age, so I understand
the draw. What about Kristin
Davis? The naturally beauti
ful actor who played Char
lotte in Sex and the City? She
had work done and now she’s
hardly recognizable. It isn’t a
fair trade, to go in for a lift
and come out looking like
someone else. Who knows,
though, maybe she told the
doctor to change it up?
As it happens, the people
I went to high school and col
lege with are also experienc
ing this big b-day. One was
on social media for two solid
weeks “celebrating” with her
husband on a trip. Then it
was a party with her work
people, and on and on and
on.
Another had a photogra
pher at her party, catching the
birthday girl looking radiant
and happy. She looked great;
I have no doubt her photog
was heavy-handed in the ed
iting process. Now she has
concrete evidence to prove
the birthday did indeed hap
pen. What did we do before
social media to remind the
world we’re getting older?
There are also trips—
Cabo seems like a popular
spot to mark a gigantic birth
day. This seems like a pretty
good idea. Isn’t there some
rule about vacation calories
and birthdays not counting?
If not, there’s nothing like
margs in Mexico to take your
mind off declining muscle
mass and looming colono
scopies.
If there is a celebration of
any type, it’ll be cake. I’d
never turn down dessert. But
no candles. I have no interest
in seeing if they’d all fit or if
the smoke detector would
squeal. (Although that would
be a fun shot for the Insta,
cake with the firefighters,
while we laugh about the
hysterical near-house fire.)
Until then, I’ll look into
the birthday vacation rules
and invest in some turtle
necks.
[Lowrie is an editor at the
Big Canoe Smoke Signals
and a contributor to the
Progress. An unabashed soc
cer mom, she has enjoyed life
in Pickens County since
2006.]
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