Sidewalk Hazards, Transportation Tax

June 2011

In This Issue

Award-winning sidewalk hazard reporter wants results

Proposed transportation sales tax: What's in it for pedestrians?

Sidewalk Hazard Hunt winners want results

Kate Furukawa, winner of the $100 prize in PEDS' May Sidewalk Hazard Hunt, reported 20 conditions near her East Atlanta home that make walking to the bus stop, the shops in East Atlanta Village and the park across the street difficult and dangerous. Winning the prize was a nice extra, but Kate reported all those hazards in hopes of getting them fixed!

Kate's husband Dave is visually impaired. With assistance from his guide dog Simon, Dave walks about a block from his home to a MARTA bus stop for his daily commute to work.

Furukawa family walking near their home

The sidewalks are in such poor condition that Kate takes their son Will into the street for strolls. Drivers rarely slow down.

The Furukawas heard about the Hazard Hunt and PEDS' online reporting tool through their neighborhood association. "Dave was so excited when I told him there was an organization working to promote safer sidewalks," Kate reported. Dave's 94-year-old grandmother soon will be living nearby in the Branan Towers Retirement Community. He wants her to have a safe walk to their home.

Congratulations to Kate and also to Pam Aerts, who won a $75 gift card from Phidippides during our mid-month drawing. In total, 142 people in six jurisdictions reported 237 hazards in May. PEDS thanks all the volunteers who participated in the hazard hunt.

PEDS' online hazard reporting tool is available year-round. Keep up your great work reporting hazards!

Making sure what gets reported gets resolved

PEDS' online hazard reporting tool provides a direct link to 16 local governments in metro Atlanta. When volunteers use our tool to report a hazard, an email is sent directly to the department representative who oversees a response to the issue. PEDS receives a copy of each email so we can track follow-through.

During May, the City of Atlanta received the most hazard reports. To learn more about how the City handles reports, PEDS met with a Public Works Department staff member. People who submit reports receive an email with a tracking number for each hazard. The City does not provide updates, however, unless people check on the status.

PEDS requested and received status updates on each of the problems reported in May. The updates showed that hazard reports to the City of Atlanta trigger an inspection within 3 days. If the inspector decides the repair is the City's responsibility, work is supposed to occur within 30 days. Most often, however, the City assigns responsibility to someone else and passes the report off into what usually amounts to a black hole.

We are working with the Department to implement better procedures for closing the communications loop on all hazards reported. Solving problems caused by the City is not enough.The City also bears responsibility for ensuring pedestrian hazards are eliminated, regardless of who created the problems.

PEDS has requested a meeting with the Commissioner of Public Works and others to encourage the City to adopt policies and procedures so that all hazards reported get resolved.

Investing in safe pedestrian access to transit

Discussion about the project list for the proposed regional transportation sales tax has focused primarily on roads and transit. Yet as PEDS President Sally Flocks explained last week on the SaportaReport.com, a successful transit system will depend on safe pedestrian access.

Improving the pedestrian environment requires a relatively small public investment. This will quickly pay for itself with lives saved, increased transit usage and better public health. Even at locations without marked crosswalks, installing median refuge islands is likely to reduce pedestrian crashes by 39 percent.

Some who viewed the $22.9 billion unconstrained project list for the proposed sales tax were disappointed to see that it contains only $204.6 million in "bike-ped" projects. Yet the list also contains hundreds of millions for projects identified as "corridor improvements" or "multi-modal complete street improvements." These can provide an even better opportunity to transform outdated roads that were designed only for cars into complete streets that serve all modes safely.

With a good project list, the regional sales tax can empower the region to make major progress in the decade ahead. By investing just $400 million in sidewalks, refuge islands and pedestrian-friendly corridor improvements, we can create safe routes to transit throughout the region.

During the summer, the Regional Roundtable will trim down the $22.9 billion list of projects to match the $6 to $8 billion the tax, if passed, is likely to raise during its 10-year lifespan.

PEDS encourages you to take advantage of opportunities to provide public input. Elected officials are currently using telephone town hall meetings to reach out to over a million residents for input. The Fulton County town hall meeting is Wednesday, June 22 at 6:00 p.m. If you receive a phone call, please participate. If you don't, please call 1-888-886-6603 to join the conversation. When prompted, enter PIN # 16727.

With your help and that of allied organizations, we hope to ensure the final project list includes a fair share of funding for transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Help make metro Atlanta walkable!

PEDS is a member-based advocacy group dedicated to
making metro Atlanta safe and accessible for all pedestrians.
404-685-8722 peds.org

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