More than 80,000 Georgia drivers were busted at 90 mph or faster in the past 10 years, with 10,000 of them traveling 100 mph or faster. Those figures include only the speeders whom police could catch, which Hatfield says represent a small percentage of the many extraordinarily fast drivers on Atlanta's highways. Their speed alone makes them difficult to pull over. These lead-footed drivers may seem like rebels, but they're just taking their cue from everybody else on the highways. Atlanta's herd of impetuous drivers click along at such a fast pace that someone who wants to break out of the flow of traffic has to crank it up to 90 to 100 miles per hour.
Traffic cops are hard to find on Atlanta's expressways.
Traffic enforcement teams are part of most metro Atlanta police departments, but they are small units often assigned to local streets instead of interstates. Atlanta's 2.8 million licensed drivers, they are like a handful of cowboys trying to control a stampeding herd. For motorists, driving at extreme speeds comes with minimal legal risk because traffic court judges rarely dole out more than a slap on the wrist. It was Saturday night, right around midnight. Walker and a girlfriend were aboard Walker's new Suzuki GSX, a sporty, Space Age cycle that pitches the driver forward.