Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA —
A recent event could well hold the answers to resolving a long-term problem and teaching a new generation that just because something looks easy doesn’t mean it is.
Earlier this month, Robbie Knievel jumped from one ramp to another on barges stretching across the lake at Wild Adventures. An impressive feat. But some younger folks couldn’t help but critique the jump. They felt the span was too short or the ramps were too close.
This comes from a generation that’s seen any number of fake stunts created by computer special effects. Having spent more time on a couch thumb-clicking Mario across a chasm, some younger folks wouldn’t know a real stunt if they fell into one.
Some of these critics looked like they had never even popped a bicycle wheelie over a mud puddle, but that didn’t stop many from claiming they could have made Knievel’s jump on a bicycle.
So, let’s put their money where their mouths are and save taxpayers a little money, too.
I submit that we build the Knievel Leapover along Highway 84.
Yep, instead of an overpass, the state should build a leapover so traffic doesn’t have to stop for trains along West Hill Avenue.
What’s a leapover? It’s similar to an overpass. The only difference being a leapover is essentially two ramps with no bridge in the middle. Traffic would leap from one side of the leapover to the other. Just like the ramps in Knievel’s jump.
You’d drive along Highway 84, accelerate up the leapover ramp, soar over the train crossing below then slam to a bouncing, jolting landing on the other side.
The Knievel Leapover, wouldn’t that be something?
And think of the money we’d save? A leapover wouldn’t need anywhere near as much concrete to construct as an overpass what with that big gap at the top of it. Given this cost-saving measure, a leapover may fit into the Georgia Department of Transportation’s tighter budget.
Commercial property owners who have long worried that an overpass would hurt their businesses could expect increased trade as people arrive from near and far to see who will and won’t make the leapover. Business would be booming.
The leapover could also provide business opportunities. There’d probably be a great need for a business like Struts & Stuff, what with all of those hard landings. It could be operated by someone like Cooter from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” someone used to working with cars that have endured many leaps. Struts & Stuff could be right at the base of a leapover ramp. Shoot, business would probably be so good, there’d be a Struts & Stuff at the bottom of each leapover ramp in no time.
As for safety, on opening day, the city and DOT should invite all of the 20-somethings and 30-somethings who said they could have done the Robbie Knievel jump on their Huffy and Schwinns. Let them bring their bicycles and make the jump across the leapover. If they can make it on bicycles, well, a car or an 18-wheeler should be a breeze. Traffic problem solved.
Dean Poling is The Valdosta Daily Times assistant managing editor.
