Is there any way to curb Atlanta's deadly driving habits?

More people, more roads, more cars -- it all adds up to more death.
I hate to be a doomsayer, but some situations are just hopeless. And Atlanta's traffic is one of them.

Nobody walks in Atlanta, and more people are moving here every day. Statistically speaking, we are guaranteed an ever-increasing number of traffic fatalities.

But it's not just a matter of population. Atlanta's recent surge in roadway fatalities is partly a matter of lax law enforcement -- and the fact that our traffic culture is changing with every new arrival.

Think about it. Atlanta is no longer the exclusive domain of dottering old-lady motorists and the occasional drag-racing redneck. This city has evolved into a massive melting pot of people from everywhere; all of them raised under entirely different traffic circumstances. It's a rich culture-clash of road warriors -- not only between Yankees and home folk, but between people from places all around the globe.

Look around the next time you're stuck in traffic. There are Mexican painters in overcrowded vans, Indian tech workers in impossibly small cars, prosperous Asian merchants in big Mercedes Benzes, country boys in pickup trucks and soccer moms in SUVs. All of these people, and several million more, are now impatiently commuting amid Atlanta's incredibly frustrating traffic conditions.

On weekends, our highways become NASCAR-style raceways, clogged with impatient daredevils zigging and zagging dangerously for the purpose of slicing a few seconds from their trip time. Law enforcement is occasionally seen pulling over an unlucky speed demon, but given the sheer number of vehicles on the road, the chances of getting caught are slim. So everyone speeds -- and metro police are clearly powerless to deal effectively with the dangerous traffic conditions motorists face on our interstates.

For its part, government offers little in the way of ideas. As more roads are funded and built, the mantra emanating from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety involves optimistic plans for increased law enforcement and "driver education" programs. The police angle is easy to endorse, but the driver education approach seems to involve nothing more than generic blather about how speeding, drunk driving and failing to use seatbelts are bad ideas.

Forgive me if I am not encouraged. Unless state and local governments crack down aggressively on speeding and reckless driving on our roads, we cannot hope for any relief from our traffic dilemmas. And even if they do, there aren't enough police officers in Georgia to deal with Atlanta's melting pot of road-bound weirdness -- much less the problems in the rest of the state.