RSS FeedFeet on Atlanta: Survey the Sidewalks!
April 10, 2009 at 08:52am by PEDS · 2 comments
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.
UPDATE: Volunteers surveyed sidewalks on more than 100 City of Atlanta streets and submitted results to PEDS by April 30, 2009. The winners of our two random prize drawings were Mairead Reid who won the $75 Phiddipides Gift Certificate, and Nancy von Neumann who won the 20-Trip MARTA Card. Congratulations to Nairead and Nancy, and to everyone who participated!
Thirty-five percent of the sidewalks surveyed by PEDS volunteers are in need of repair or replacement. That’s 10% more than the City of Atlanta’s estimate. On some streets, such as Memorial Drive and Kirkwood Ave., as much as 75% of the sidewalks were broken. In newer sections of the City, the problem wasn’t as bad.
In May, PEDS’ President Sally Flocks met with the City of Atlanta’s Director of Public Works Joe Basista to share our findings and discuss whether the City plans to offer citizens a bond referendum to fund sidewalk maintenance. Feet on Atlanta survey results helped make that meeting productive. You can count on PEDS to continue working to make Atlanta, and other metro area communities, pedestrian friendly.
I just saw this. Can you add Monroe Circle off of Monroe Dr near Trader Joe’s to your list? Not only are the sidewalks extremely damaged, but people have been ripping the sidewalks out and right now it is at a tipping point. If it is not repaired and replaced soon, the sidewalks could be lost completely on this street. People have to walk in the road and due to illegally handmade painted parking spots it is very dangerous. Someone will likely be hit soon waking through to the grocery stores next door.