Death By Buford Highway
Decatur Metro | July 27, 2010 | 12:55 pmPBS’s Blueprint America recently featured Atlanta’s Buford Highway as an example of the relatively new nationwide issue of having a majority of your low-income populations living in the car-dominated suburbs.
According to PBS, 30 pedestrians have been killed along Buford Highway in the past decade. That’s an average of three people a year.
h/t: GOOD
Wow. Thanks for posting this DM.
Yes. Having worked at the Latin American Association (located in Buford Highway) I can tell you that it surprises me to read that only 3 people per year have been killed… I wonder how many people actually got hit and maybe never reported the problem for fear to be deported.
There are some churches and community initiatives that have tried to provide transportation for people that are unable to drive (because they can’t get a license or can’t afford to buy/lease a car) and take them to MARTA stops or the major commercial centers but those are isolated attempts to paliate the situation.
They have it really hard there, many times is just mothers with their kids in strollers or walking trying to get to the super market, a pharmacy or a bus stop… And we haven’t even talked about living conditions in those apartment complexes.
That was my first reaction too. That it was ONLY three people.
But geez, can you imagine if Decatur had a road that killed three people a year?
Torches and pitchforks. (Which is the opposite of “bread and circuses”)
[...] (H/T Decatur Metro) [...]
That really smart guy from PEDS, Michael Orta, is your neighbor in Oakhurst.
Yeah, Michael! He’s a great dad too!
not that it’s the full issue, but as someone who enjoys walking, it’s absurd how non-pedestrian friendly much of Atlanta is (like lack of sidewalks). And in that case, also lack of crosswalks.
Outstanding piece! All it lacked was a call to action. BTW, didn’t Tom Wolfe describe crossing this exact stretch of road in A Man in Full?
Jeez, did you see that poor fellow on the bicycle? Or the guy with the ice cream cart?
I particularly liked how after you cross a zillion lanes of hell you reach the safety of the scenic and comfortable sidewalk.
[...] Decatur Metro & Creative Loafing both linked to this video excerpt from a PBS documentary, showing how dangerous Buford Highway can be for pedestrians. There is a brief clip of Chief King, along with a snippet about the pedestrian crosswalks that were built in Doraville (and how the state still hasn’t turned them back on yet). [...]
Even as a driver, I find Buford Highway nerve wracking. I can’t imagine having to cross it on foot every day.
Hey, thanks for the compliments! Not sure who that was, but thanks anyway. True — much of metro Atlanta is pedestrian-UNfriendly. Local, regional and state transportation policies have been overwhelmingly vehicle-friendly for many, many years.
PEDS, metro Atlanta’s pedestrian advocacy organization, is pushing your transportation agencies to provide safe crossings to transit on wide, busy roads like Buford Hwy, Roswell Rd, Tara Blvd, and others. A quarter of all pedestrian crashes in metro Atlanta occur within 100 feet of bus stops (and half within 300 ft). You can see a video of the problem and PEDS’ efforts here: http://peds.org/2010/04/23/unsafe-crossings-to-bus-stops/. The organization has made creating safe crossings to transit one of its top priorities. I’d encourage anyone concerned about walkability to support PEDS. (That’s your call to action.) PEDS is your voice for walkable communities.
By the way, it was PEDS that prompted the City of Decatur to add a smooth (unstamped) section to all the new crosswalks, so that wheelchair users and visually impaired people can cross the street more comfortably and safely. Decatur should have added ladder-style stripes for greater visibility, too. Maybe next time? Remember: form follows function.
Hi, Michael. Big fan of everything you and PEDS do for walkability in the ATL metro. Your org is a huge asset.
One minor quibble, before we line up too quickly behind the deceptively simple “form follows function.” Yes, that’s true, but Buford Highway’s intended function was whisking as many cars as possible towards the ‘burbs as quickly as possible and its form predictably follows that.
The trick is getting a broader range of functions — walking, biking and accessibility, for example — prioritized so that, when DOT is at the drawing board, they count those things among the functions that form is expected to follow. I’m sure this is what you meant, but wanted to make sure. It’s the political agreement on the functions that seems so hard sometimes… especially outside Decatur.
I couldn’t have said it better. Very true.