Mayor Wants Input on Scott Blvd Sidewalks
Decatur Metro | April 2, 2008Mayor Floyd gives us an update on the GDOT’s plan to eliminate funding on Scott Boulevard sidewalks, which I mentioned last week and reports that the GDOT is willing to do “some work” along Scott.
However, residents and city officials will have to choose: either new sidewalks on the “south side of Scott across from Westchester, Lamont to Clairemont” or repairs to existing sidewalks.
The mayor asks for comments, but like a commenter mentioned in a previous post, I can’t figure out how to submit something on the mayor’s blog. Perhaps comments are turned off? If so, to turn them back on, click on options and then make sure that “Allow people to post comments on the article” is checked off.
I can’t imagine that if given the opportunity there would still be “no comments” on the mayor’s site. Personally, I’m seeing many of my readers jumping over to his site from this one.
In regards to the sidewalks choice, I guess I would prefer that money be spent on repairs. No one walks down that road by choice, only out of necessity to get from point A to point B. Might as well have a smooth, uncracked surface to do it on.
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Right on, Brother Metro. Too often, people think “sidewalks” and “walkability” are synonymous but the physical infrastructure is really just a small part of the equation. Can’t forget things like road width, design speed, planting strips, street trees and, perhaps most important, meaningful destinations. All are determinants in whether people walk or bike. Scott Blvd. is nothing more than a car-sewer — engineered for one thing only: speedy automotive throughput. Gonna take a lot more than new sidewalks to make it humane.
I couldn’t comment on the Mayor’s site but I’ll try here. I’d like to see the sidewalk extended rather than repaired. I walk (read: “risk my life”) from Woodlawn going west to Lullwater all the time and the worst part, embarrassingly, is the Decatur area. The cars are flying and there is no barrier between the walker and the street. I knew it was bad when I noticed I felt safer on the block with a monkey grass barrier. As you head West, the barrier between sidewalk and street increases. If sidewalks were kept clear of debris it would help. I contacted the builder of the large houses on Scott near Pinetree (high on the hill) and asked them to blow their sidewalk (tons of pine straw, etc.) and they failed to do so. Can the city clean them up?
The intersection of Scott and Ponce by the RR Bridge is incredibly difficulty to cross. Walkers have to go WAY out of their way to safely cross the street.
I thought we were trying to be a walkable city. What’s up? Sometimes it feels so unsafe walking the three blocks from our house to Venetian Pool that we actually drive it (and we walk everywhere/all the time).
Please Decatur–work on the Scott corridor–it is one of the first places many visitors encounter and the rest of us live with it daily.
Scott…agreed. I’m not sure its a bad thing that Scott Blvd. is a car-sewer (love the term BTW)…its probably the only semi-major artery within the city limits. It gets me places fast when I need it.
I think many of the folks that take rightful issue with Scott are Venetian Pools members. It’s pretty dangerous at the Nelson Ferry crosswalk and flashing yellow light. Though I don’t know if a “stop for pedestrians in crosswalk” sign is the best solution either. On really high speed streets, those signs often give walkers a false sense of security. Someone got hit in a crosswalk with one on DeKalb Ave just last week. So, I have no ultimate solution for making Scott walkable without dramatically slowing traffic. And I’m not sure that’s a great idea.
Hey altmod, by “extended” do you mean widen the existing sidewalks or adding new sidewalks? If there was a third option to move the existing sidewalks farther from the street, I would certainly pick that…but I’m not sure that’s fiscally possible.
I think because its a state road, the city has minimal say over Scott’s development…though I would assume that keeping sidewalks clear is something they could do. If you feel like it, I found this cool Atlanta website called PEDS thru AroundMidtown.com a few weeks back that allows you to report a variety of sidewalk issues directly to the city of Decatur. Go here to check it out…
http://www.peds.org/takeaction.htm
If you try it out, let me know if you end up seeing results! It would be an interesting case study.
All good points. By “extended” I meant continuing the sidewalk (covering more distance) but really what I would prefer is the same as decaturite– some sort of buffer. The icing on the cake would be safe crossings. I agree that the traffic is too fast for the “stop for peds” crosswalks. My son and I play a game at the crosswalk across from Taqueria–we count how many cars it takes as we stand at the edge of the crosswalk until someone stops. Our record–6! If I was going to use one of those on Scott, I’d send a wooden decoy out into the street first! I’ll check out the PEDS site. Thanks for the link.