Access to the paved road up to the top of Kennesaw Mountain will change for cars and cyclists next year.
The National Park Service, which operates Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, proposed eliminating car access to the top and adding a daily shuttle service. It will also limit bike access to times when no vehicles are be on the road — a proposal that has many cyclists upset.
“I hate it. I love to come up here, and (the plan) restricts when I can,” said Andy Thurmond, a cyclist who grew up in the area. “I really would like more trails, period.”
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
Kennesaw Mountain has grown significantly in popularity, hitting a peak in 2019 with 2.6 million visitors. In 2023, nearly 1.5 million people visited the park. It is the second-most visited national park in Georgia after the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, according to National Park Service data.
The increased popularity has lead to competition on the roadway, with pedestrians, bikes and cars all navigating up and down the two-lane Kennesaw Mountain Drive during the week.
“The bikers are coming up or down — mostly coming down fast — and they have to be worried still now about cars,” said Brad McCahill, who walks up the mountain regularly. “They’ve run speed traps and caught bikers (violating the 15 mph speed limit) on this road.”
Currently on the weekends, the shuttle operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the road is closed off to bikes and cars. The new plan would extend those rules to every day of the week while allowing bikes access for an hour before the shuttle begins and an hour after shuttle service ends, a plan that park Superintendent Patrick Gammon said is not set in stone.
The National Park Service is seeking input from the public until July 12 on the proposal before implementing the changes next summer. Something has to change, Gammon said at a Monday night meeting, due to growing safety concerns.
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
“We’ve got to address this before somebody gets hurt,” Gammon said. “We have this beautiful mountain and a road that’s only 20 feet wide. ... It has pretty steep grade, nine blind curves, and steep drop offs on the outside of the edge of the road. So I’m gonna say this out loud right now, we cannot expand.”
Currently, pedestrians are supposed to keep to the left lane heading up on the paved road, while cyclists and cars keep to the other side. Everyone is supposed to say below 15 miles an hour, but Chief Ranger Anthony Winegar said some fly down the mountain, including cyclists, endangering themselves and pedestrians. Just that day, rangers stopped two cars going over 30 miles per hour and four bikes going up to 37 miles per hour.
“I’m not going to say that that is a commonplace issue, but I have been in this park for over 25 years now, and I have run radar on that road,” Winegar said. “I have worked multiple bicycle accidents on that road. Most of them are single bicycle accidents — not bicycles with cars. They were bicycles that lost control.”
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
Gina Diodati has been training at Kennesaw Mountain for 10 years and said the limited hours would be too restrictive for cyclists who use the mountain to regularly work out. She suggested setting aside certain days during which bikes can use the road for longer stints.
“I do not speed down the hills, but it is horrifying sometimes to come across those guys,” she said at the Monday night meeting. “Is there anything you guys can do to slow cyclists down?”
Some questioned why the bikes couldn’t use the shuttle lane and make sure to avoid the shuttle, but Gammon said the chance of a head-on collision is too risky, especially with the road’s blind turns.
Waunelle Jackson-Ian said she has been walking up Kennesaw Mountain for 25 years, and she’s seen her fair share of speeding cyclists.
“They go too fast, and they’re pretty obnoxious about getting real close to you,” she said. “It’s the few that destroy it.”
She and McCahill walk there together and have seen close calls, especially around the mountain’s several “hairpin turns.”
“Overall, even with the cars coming and going, 95% of the time there’s no issues at all. You always get one or two that are gonna flout the rules,” said McCahill said.
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
Still, bikers say the few shouldn’t ruin it for the many who use Kennesaw Mountain to train, especially when their biking options in the area are limited.
“It would be a big blow to lose this,” said cyclist Mark Stolz.
