Completing the Streets

First there were the new stop signs on Cumberland, turning the North Morningside-Cumberland intersection into a 4-way stop (although you have to look and see that there are 4 stop signs; there isn't any other signage indicating that it is a 4-way stop).  Then the orange barrels -- a serious quantity of orange barrels -- appeared near the triangular traffic island at the East Rock Springs/Morningside/North Pelham intersection -- and the lane that allowed eastbound cars to go directly from East Morningside to North Morningside was blocked off.  The result has been backed up eastbound traffic on East Morningside at least at the evening rush hour, as the volume of cars on the road exceeds what can make it through a 4-way stop.  This should not have been a surprise to the people who planned this, as the traffic volume at different times of day is a knowable quantity, and 4-way stops are generally recommended only for intersections with "approximately equal" traffic volumes on the intersecting roads (resulting in equivalent obstruction to traffic flow on both roads in both directions) at specified volumes.

There's also work being done at East Rock Springs and Johnson Road, and North Morningside and Highland; work is also planned on East Rock Springs near Morningside Elementary School, but I don't know if that has started yet.  All of this is thanks to Safe Routes to School, a Federally-funded program to make neighborhoods safer for kids to walk to school.  In 2008, Morningside parents wrote a grant to improve safety for children walking to Morningside Elementary School.  Since all the construction started, there's been complaints from drivers about almost everything, from the 4-way stop at North Morningside and Cumberland to the changes at Morningside and East Rock Springs.  At North Morningside and North Highland, the right turn lane for southbound traffic on North Morningside is now gone.  Due to inattentive drivers, this was a hazard for pedestrians -- drivers would only look to their left for cars before turning, and any pedestrian to their right was at risk -- but I understand that that intersection now backs up at peak times as well.

Once the construction started, there was a community meeting arranged by Alex Wan at Morningside Elementary, but that was during the daytime and I couldn't make it.  The Georgia Department of Transportation sent some people out last week at 6 p.m. one evening (presumably to check out how bad the backed-up traffic was on East Morningside).  According to the MLPA, there will be a right turn lane on East Rock Springs, and they are still considering whether or not the East Morningside to North Morningside lane that bypasses the 4-way stop can be re-opened. "This will not be considered if GDOT cannot find a way to slow that traffic as it moves onto N. Morningside." Well, good luck with that. That's the fundamental problem, that people in cars assume that this nice, wide road was built just for them and that the most important thing in the world is for them to be able to get from where they were to where they want to go as quickly as possible. Bicyclists, pedestrians, people walking their dogs, parents with baby strollers are mobile speed bumps that obstruct the flow of traffic and should just stay out of their way.

In September, the Georgia Department of Transportation adopted a Complete Streets policy. The idea behind Complete Streets is that streets need to be designed for all users, not just drivers; Georgia's Complete Streets policy includes accommodation for transit users, something not include in many other states' Complete Streets policies. This is a really good thing and I am delighted to see the GDOT doing something other than planning to build interstate highways through our intown neighborhoods, but even an excellent policy cannot do it all. All the traffic-calming in the world won't slow down Atlanta's sleep-deprived, long-commuting, large coffee-consuming drivers. The angry drivers on the neighborhood email lists say that if the problem is speeding, the police should enforce the speed limits. Well, good luck with that, too; the level of noncompliance with residential speed limits is so high that enforcement would take all the police in the city. So what could be done?  Activist David Engwicht recommends reclaiming streets from cars by moving the social life of the neighborhood closer to the street, putting "something intriguing" in your front yard, and waving at drivers (which might slow them down because they think mistakenly for just a moment that the pedestrian they are endangering might actually be someone they know).

There isn't a simple solution. Engineering changes can be part of the fix, but people have to change their behavior, too. It used to be socially acceptable to smoke, and it really isn't, anymore. It shouldn't be socially acceptable to drive too fast in residential neighborhoods. Maybe every block needs an activist with a radar gun who takes pictures of license plates of speeding cars and posts them on line (something I have thought about doing). But in the meantime, Georgia policy is that pedestrians and bicyclists and transit users have the same claim to Georgia streets and roads as drivers. If there are enough of us out there, maybe it will make a difference. And maybe while we're at it we should wave at the drivers as they speed past us.