Sandy Springs strives to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2040

Realigning the intersection of Heards Ferry and Weatherly Drives removing a small traffic island and extending the eastbound left-turn lane at Riverside Drive were among safety measures to reduce angle and rear-end crashes Provided by Sandy Springs Sandy Springs city executives have cut years off a proposed target date to achieve zero fatalities or serious injuries from crashes on city streets The city council adopted an amended Safe Streets for Sandy Springs Safety Action Plan during its April meeting The city received a U S Department of Transportation grant to prepare the plan Kristen Wescott transportation services unit manager for the city announced the first goal proposed by staff after engaging with stakeholders and society members was to strive to achieve zero fatal and serious injury crashes by on city-owned streets A draft of the plan was initially introduced to the city council in October The city launched progress of the plan in August A copy of the draft plan and a map showing safety concerns shared by region members can be exposed on the city s website Council member John Paulson stated he thought years was too long I will not advocacy this unless this moves to and I don t know totally what the implications are but we have smart staff they can figure this out Paulson declared The second goal was to work with the Georgia Department of Transportation GDOT to establish safety goals for state routes and limited-access facilities within the city to achieve a five percent annual reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes Fatal and serious injury crashes were expected to reach zero by if this progress is made according to the presentation made by Wescott Two-thirds of the crashes occurring in Sandy Springs are on state or federal routes according to the presentation Wescott stated the council that staff examined the more than crashes between and to determine the type of accidents and where they occurred The Safety Action Plan informed that the greatest number of crashes occurred on the Georgia state track system including I- percent of all crashes GA percent Roswell Road percent and Holcomb Bridge Road one percent Serious accidents continue to occur on the city s streets On March a Sandy Springs man walking along Roswell Road was fatally struck by a motorcycle driven by a Roswell man with the driver charged with vehicular homicide Thirty-four percent of all crashes occurred on city-owned streets Among the crashes during this time crashes resulted in at least one fatality and crashes involved at least one serious injury Among the fatal and injury crashes pedestrians and six bicyclists were killed or seriously injured Council member Andy Bauman requested that the city examine traffic-calming measures to reduce crashes He explained a consistent comment from residents is that the process to get traffic calming measures is not user-friendly It would seem incongruent to me as a matter of population procedures that on the one hand the council would adopt a zero goal of zero deaths and not at the same time take a good hard look at its traffic calming procedures Bauman noted and also the amount of money that it would invest in traffic calming which may be several of the the bulk low-hanging fruit of this The post Sandy Springs strives to eliminate traffic fatalities by appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta