Scooter & SUV Collide at E Ponce & Commerce
Decatur Metro | August 13, 2009
Andisheh sends in this photo and Julia provides this account:
Right in the intersection of Commerce and Ponce an SUV and a guy on a moped/scooter collided. He was pretty shaken up but the ambulance and cops got there pretty quickly.
On Twitter, Robbie Harris reports that the scooter driver was a 16-year old kid.
I’ll try to find out the scooter rider’s condition. UPDATE: Andisheh reported on Twitter that the scooter driver survived.
What is with this intersection lately? I wonder if there’s any sort of report that shows the most dangerous intersections in Decatur. That could be pretty interesting.
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Terrible accident. Glad the kid is okay.
Commerce has several tough intersections. This one and the commerce/college intersection which is just plain dangerous. Stand outside our beautiful Citgo gas station on the corner and check out the speeds at which people hit that intersection. Scary. No turn signals, which mystifies me.
Turn signals are optional on cars sold in Atlanta.
I used a turn signal once…the car behind me immediately zoomed around mine and the passenger glared at me. Upset me so much I almost stopped to let a pedestrian cross the street!
Slightly off topic here but does anyone know what the deal is with that house on the corner of ponce and commerce seen in the photo? It’s filled with random junk and I often see an older gentleman puttering around out front seemingly filling the house with more and more random stuff. I’ve never been able to figure out if someone actually lives there.
I have wondered this for so long I can’t even think back that far! I really hope someone knows the answer to this.
My husband and I had one of our oddest Decatur experiences long ago at that house. We were looking to buy our house in Decatur and we went to an Open House on Ponce Court. As we were walking by the old man’s house, he was putting a “For Sale By Owner” sign up. We starting chatting with him and he talked us into getting a tour of his house and property. I won’t go into details because of his privacy, but suffice it to say, it was like a trip to Howard Finster’s.
He and his wife are (were?) very kind people, but a bit on the eccentric, packrat side.
When I took Decatur 101, that house was a major topic during the class on zoning. From what I remember, the owner started to make it into a duplex prior to zoning rules being what they are now, and for whatever reason was unable to fix the project. Now, the zoning rules would prohibit the project as the owner originally wanted, so the remains half finished.
someone said above, “Iused a turn signal once…the car behind me immediately zoomed around mine and the passenger glared at me. ”
I really hope the goverment of this city does everything possible to make it as inconvenient as possible for people to drive around this city and make it as convenient as possible to walk, bike, scooter. Whoever made the deal that car/SUV’s have priority right of way to drive anywhere and act as dangerously as they choose? Who allowed all this heat inducing pavement to be laid down everywhere? Drivers in the Atlanta region are getting more brazen in thier aggressiveness. If people want to easily drive thier vehicles around, move out to some cookie cutter cul de sac community. I choose to live in Decatur because its a community that believes pedestrians (human beings) and the environment that we live in are its priority….not the automobile and the pavement.
Man, I have just GOT to try to remember to put a note in my posts that I’m making a joke. I keep forgetting that sarcasm doesn’t carry well into print.
Although they are the fun part of posting here, jokes don’t seem to carry well here–not because of print, you’d think people could put a little more thought into their reading–but because of the baggage the readers already have. A lot of readers here seem to have a chip on their shoulder–yes, their one giant, collective shoulder–like Atlas…
I thought your sarcasm was, while funny, actually pretty darn accurate!
Check out the transportation master plan. It puts a lot of emphasis on things other than cars.
I don’t know why but traffic really flies around that sweeping turn on Commerce approaching Ponce.
That intersection seems like a good candidate for a….TRAFFIC CIRCLE!
Seriously, there might be some dieting possible on Commerce to narrow the perceived width and slow things down.
(I’m not asserting blame in this particular incident)
Hope the motorcyclist recovers.
Stupid Q: Is it legal for a 16 yr old to be driving a scooter after dark?
as long as the lights are turned on.
yes, as long as the scooter is 50cc or less and he/she has a (automobile) drivers license -or- he/she is riding a scooter with an engine bigger than 50cc and has a motorcycle license.
I was at that accident and held the kids hand until the police got there. My sister was still on the phone until they did. I was really worried but glad to hear the kid is ok.
Plus it was not the kids fault. This woman in the car was not in the turning lane and speed out in front of all the other cars