Evans Drive, Oakhurst – Decatur, GA (pic submitted by Matthew)

Sandi sent in this pic yesterday of the freshly painted sign put up on the new Big Tex Cantina setting up shop in the old Natalie’s Fish House space on the southern end of Ponce de Leon Court.

Over on their Facebook page, they’ve got a few pics from earlier this month of the construction going on inside.

Decatur cyclist Ben Gerhardstein was hit by a car running a red light in downtown Decatur two weeks ago.  The car was traveling around 30 mph.

“Lucky to survive”, Gerhardstein wrote an opinion piece in yesterday’s AJC detailing the experience and insisting that we – as a society – should accept nothing less than zero traffic fatalities.  Sound like an impossible goal?   Gerhardstein makes an interesting point…

Zero traffic deaths may sound unrealistic. But, consider our approach to air travel. We do not tolerate aviation fatalities and when a plane wreck occurs, we expect government investigations and changes in laws. Further, to ensure aviation safety we accept long security screening lines.

In contrast, when we are behind the wheel, we expect lenient traffic law enforcement and no delays. Too often, the unintended consequence of our lax attitude toward road safety is an injury or death of an unprotected road user.

He goes on to RIGHTLY point out that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all make mistakes – something I continuously try to bring up in the ongoing DM debates between transport-parties – and goes on to assert that our energies should instead be focused on investing in safe road environments that “account for our human propensity for error.”

Implementing Georgia’s 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is just one step, according to Gerhardstein, but he’d also like to see reduction of speed limits in “high pedestrian and bicycle areas” and a further separation between bicycles and cars and pedestrians.

Quite a well-reasoned op-ed from a guy who was almost killed by a car a couple weeks ago.

h/t: Lain Shakespeare (via Twitter)

Steve points out that the newly released, revised bus map of MARTA Route #2 doesn’t, in fact, bring the bus back to Decatur Station, as was the original plan.  Here’s MARTA’s description of the approved change…

Weekday service frequencies will be improved to operate every 15 minutes during the peak; every 25 minutes during the midday and 30 minutes during the evening periods. All trips will alternate between Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Avenue to/from North Avenue Station and Monroe Drive. Service along the afore- mentioned segments will operate 30 minutes peak; 50 minutes midday and 60 minutes during evening periods. Saturday and Sunday service frequencies will be adjusted to operate every 35 minutes with all trips alternating via Ponce de Leon Avenue and North Avenue to/from North Avenue Station.

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here over the past week.

Comments close Monday.