Atlanta uses barricades to block street racing, drifting

ATLANTA - Atlanta police are not going to chase street racers because it is just too dangerous.

What if they can get in their way another way? The interim chief says he supports a strategy to place sand-filled barriers in the intersections where they like to perform burnouts and donuts to hundreds who cheer and film their daredevil stunts.

Commissioner Josh Rowan, who oversees the transportation division at City Hall, is helping.

"There is no scientific method to what we are doing," Rowan told the council transportation panel on Wednesday. "Where we see the black circles [burned rubber from donuts] we will put down barriers."

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Workers already have placed some in downtown, including a fork in the road in Castleberry Hill.

This week, crews will go to Chastain Park, to place barricades on a street where racers have driven.

"These barriers may not be attractive," said Chief Rodney Bryant, "but they work."

He added police have locked up dozens of riders and impounded several "muscle cars," but other drivers fill in those slots. The activity is just that popular.

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