PEDS Blog: April, 2009

Draped with a large banner reading “FIX ATLANTA’S SIDEWALKS,” PEDS’ booth at the Inman Park Festival hit a nerve with both city residents and visitors. More than 600 people signed our petition, which asks the City Council to make sidewalk maintenance the responsibility of the city, not abutting property owners. The petition also asks the City to approve a bond referendum allocating at least $40 million to sidewalk repairs. Parents pushing strollers, wheelchair users, runners, and older adults, and others expressed outrage about the hazardous condition of Atlanta’s sidewalks.

Atlanta residents who didn’t make it to our booth this weekend can sign our online petition.  Once we collect 1,000 signatures from Atlanta residents, we’ll submit the petition to the Atlanta City Council.

For the third time in the last few months, a pedestrian was hit while crossing a multi-lane street served by transit. This time, it’s Roswell Road in Sandy Springs — a state route. Georgia DOT together with the Sandy Springs Public Works are responsible for it. They have failed to provide safe crossings for transit users on this road (and many others). This section of Roswell Rd doesn’t even have sidewalks on one side, and only partial sidewalks on the other.

When pedestrians’ basic needs are ignored, expect to see injuries and fatalities. Just recently a woman was hit and killed on Six Flags Drive and a young girl was killed on South Cobb Drive. What do they have in common? They were crossing at bus stops on high-speed, multi-lane roads with no crosswalks in sight. Transportation agencies must stop neglecting pedestrians! Install pedestrian refuge islands or ped-activated red lights (HAWK Signals) where pedestrians need to cross!

Here’s the Fox5 News Video with comments from PEDS:

How many of Atlanta’s sidewalks are broken? The City says about 25 percent. We think it’s more. As a Feet on Atlanta volunteer, you can help PEDS find out.

April is Feet on Atlanta month. We’re inviting residents to survey the City of Atlanta’s sidewalks so we can estimate how many need to be repaired or replaced. Everyone who submits a completed form to PEDS by April 30 will be entered in a prize drawing for a $75 gift certificate at Phidippides shoe store.

Volunteering for Feet on Atlanta is easy! Just go to our Feet on Atlanta page, print our survey form and take a walk. You’ll use simple tally marks to count good and bad sidewalks. When you’re done, return to the Feet on Atlanta page to enter your results online or mail your survey forms to PEDS at 57 Forsyth St. NW, Suite 222-G, Atlanta, GA 30303.

Consider surveying a transit route. To encourage Feet on Atlanta participants to look beyond their neighborhood streets, PEDS will enter the names of volunteers who submit surveys of sidewalks on our list of bus routes by April 30 into a second drawing as well. The winner of this drawing will get a MARTA Breeze Card loaded with 20 transit trips.

Neighborhood organizations, please ask your traffic committees, block captains, or others to participate. Assigning streets to volunteers will help ensure more of your streets get surveyed.