The road warriors : 5/3/1999
It was an eerie scene, even for seasoned Atlanta
traffic warriors -- cars lined up
bumper-to-bumper on Roswell Road in Fulton
County after 7 p.m., the aftermath of a
rain-induced pileup April 27 on Georgia 400.
And it was a horrible night for Mike Burke,
manager of the Tanner's Chicken Rotisserie at 4920
Roswell Road, in the Kroger-anchored shopping
center about a mile inside Interstate 285.
With dozens of weary, frustrated drivers bailing out
of the two-hour commute home for a quiet dinner,
Burke found himself turning away customers. Two
of his servers, due in at 6 p.m., didn't arrive until
8:30 p.m. The harried young hostess simply gave up,
walking out on the crisis.
By 7:30 p.m., Burke was offering takeout to
customers who would have preferred to wait out the
traffic in a corner booth. "They couldn't eat in
because we couldn't serve them," he said.
The restaurant wound up serving 152 patrons, about
20 more than a typical Tuesday evening, he said.
It was one of the worst traffic snarls Burke had ever
seen. The only thing close was a jam-up last
summer in the opposite direction, heading into
Atlanta. On that day, Burke said a passenger
jumped out of his car, ran to Tanner's for takeout,
and ran back to the car eight to 10 minutes later to
find the car had moved only a couple of hundred
yards.
"Traffic is just terrible," he said. "Something has to
be done about it." |
