If you attended the city’s open house on Monday this is all old hat to you.  But if you didn’t, you’ll want to check out this new city webpage which features maps, fact sheets and a general overview of pedestrian safety and bike improvements to the Commerce/Clairemont/Church Street corridors.

There’s even a questionnaire that was handed out at the session, which you can fill out and return to the city if you want to give official input to the project.

The developmental future of Commerce Drive is interesting to ponder.  It was built as a way to funnel cars around the heart of downtown Decatur.  It’s massive width tells the most ancient parts of your brain that it’s built for speed.  These mockups seem to indicate that transportation is still a key element of Commerce’s future, it’s just that peds and cyclists take up a larger footprint on the landscape.

But could Commerce ever become downtown Decatur’s third (Trinity is the second, IMO) east-west “A” street, extending the city’s downtown of walkable shops and restaurants? (Just to be clear, this is my question, not the city’s)

Never say never, but urban development around Commerce is all rather new, with no older, ped-friendly examples to get the ball rolling.  Slowing traffic and allowing more shoulder room for peds and cyclists is certainly a step in that direction.  But maybe I’m being too pie-in-the-sky.  For now, perhaps it’s best to focus on baby steps.  Mitigate the car’s footprint and its speed and then slowly over time, see what other urban elements grow up around it.

h/t: Patch

Patch and Dateline: Decatur both report that the city showed a mock-up of a roundabout at Church and Lucerne Streets – at the entrance of Glenlake Park – at last night’s community workshop addressing ped and bike safety along Commerce, Church and Clairemont.  (Patch has a pic of the roundabout mockup HERE)

Patch reports that Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon explained at the meeting that a majority of the project would be paid for by GDOT, since they believe that roundabouts improve traffic flow.  As for the larger scope of the C-Streets project, Patch’s Ralph Ellis adds…

Overall, officials said, the streets will get narrower because bike lanes will be added in places. Sharrows, bike boxes and other safety measures for bicyclists would be added.

Dateline: Decatur has a nice video of the evening, including interviews with Mr. Saxon and City Commissioner Fred Boykin.  In the video, Mr. Boykin notes that implementation of any of these plans is at least 5 years away, as is the cast with any GDOT project.  (McDonough Street improvements, anyone?)

And before anyone brings up the West Ponce/Nelson Ferry/Northern roundabout idea again, I remind you of Planning Director Amanda Thompson’s reply to us on that…

This project is not identified in the Community Transportation Plan or the 2010 Strategic Plan. So it would need significant community support to become part of our transportation program and for the City to pursue funding. Occasionally, the Georgia Department of Transportation will help fund roundabouts if the City prepares a concept study showing whether or not the roundabout will work.

Patch reports this morning that – unlike its city neighbor to the east – Decatur will not pursue an ordinance to make golf carting around town legal because the state legislation makes it too restrictive.  As a result of not being able to drive them on state highways “residents couldn’t drive them on such well-traveled routes as College Avenue, South Candler Street, parts of Commerce Drive, Scott Boulevard and Clairemont Avenue”, according to Patch.

Which – as the City Manager points out in the article – would essentially trap golf carts in their respective neighborhoods, limited from crossing the illegal state highway moats surrounding them.

With golf carts off the table, it is hard to see how Decatur will ever become the “city within a golf course” as detailed in the 2010 Strategic Plan or crack into Money Magazine’s coveted Best Places to Live issue, which each year generally features a blurb on cart cruisin’ Peachtree city residents!  (Please note: both the facts and my exasperation in that last sentence are manufactured.)

Photo courtesy of Peachtree City’s website

Judd sends in this picture from Church Street in Decatur yesterday afternoon and wonders if its a “glimpse of the future”.

I’m about a week late on this, but still think it’s worth pointing out to anyone that doesn’t also stalk Thomas Wheatley online.  The ARC has created an interactive map that shows all proposed transportation projects currently on the Transportation Roundtable’s table.  Sure we reviewed all of Decatur’s projects a few weeks back, but what about MARTA and DeKalb projects that GO THROUGH Decatur?  Heh?  Did ja think about those??

For instance upgrades and expansion of the DeKalb Multi-Use trail running along Howard Ave!  Let me know what else you discuss, as I haven’t had a ton of time to investigate yet.