Patti Garrett, Mayor

Tony Powers, Mayor Pro Tem

Lesa Mayer, Commissioner

Kelly Walsh, Commissioner

George Dusenberry, Commissioner

City of Decatur

509 N. McDonough St.

P.0. Box 220

Decatur, GA 30031

Dear Mayor Garrett, Mayor Pro Tem Powers, and Commissioners Mayer, Walsh, and Dusenberry,

For years, the people of Decatur have called upon the city and the Georgia Department of Transportation to make our roads safe. The city has done a great deal, improving crosswalks, adding sidewalks, and building multi-use paths. But the fundamental problems remain: drivers speeding, running lights, failing to yield at crosswalks, tailing too close. This kind of behavior is so widespread that even people trained to navigate our streets are being hurt, such as the crossing guard whom a driver hit on South Candler Street on September 11, 2023. He’s not the only crossing guard to suffer this fate. Another was hit by a car on East College Avenue in 2019. Indeed, even people walking on sidewalks and crosswalks are in danger, such as the four pedestrians hit in a single day in Decatur on November 6, 2023, including a tragic fatality.

We shouldn’t have to live in fear in our city, on our own streets, in our own houses. 

It’s time for action. We, the undersigned, demand that the city and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) take immediate and significant steps to curb automobile violence in Decatur, especially on our most dangerous roadways: Scott Boulevard, Clairemont Road, College Avenue, Columbia Drive, and South Candler Street.

We request the following concrete steps.

1. Lower Speed Limits 

We call upon you to immediately institute a city-wide speed limit of 25 mph on all streets that are not designated state routes. (We recognize that the city has limited authority over state routes.) 

In addition, we call upon you and city staff to immediately demand that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) reduce speed limits on our dangerous arterials, including Scott Boulevard, Clairemont Road, College Avenue, Columbia Drive, and South Candler Street. This time, you must not back down. No more business as usual.

2. Challenge the GDOT’s Methodology for Setting Speed Limits

For more than a decade, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has refused to lower speed limits on Decatur’s most dangerous roadways despite the urgent calls of its constituents. GDOT officials have based their refusal on an outdated and dangerous method for determining optimal speed limits: the so-called 85th Percentile Rule. According to this procedure, engineers measure rates of speed along a roadway to find the speed that 85% of drivers do not exceed. That, then, is adopted as the official speed limit. In essence, this method assures that the faster drivers feel like going, the higher the speed limit GDOT selects. Notably, GDOT conducts these tests with current speed limit signs in place. 

Many groups have pointed out that this method isn’t suitable for dense urban and suburban areas like the City of Decatur. (For example, the National Association of City Transportation Officials.) 

We believe that city officials and staff have been too diffident vis-à-vis GDOT in the past. It’s time for you to stand up against dangerous and outdated methods and insist that GDOT prioritize the safety of school kids over the desire of drivers to speed through our neighborhoods.

3. Build Better Crosswalks, Sidewalks, and Multi-use Paths 

We recognize that the city has been building safer crosswalks, sidewalks, and paths. We ask you to redouble your efforts, focusing primarily on the most dangerous streets (such as Candler, College, Clairemont, and Scott). Every single crossing on these streets should be reexamined from the perspective of vulnerable users: pedestrians, bike riders, and people in wheelchairs. You should adopt plans that include raised crosswalks or, at the very least, tiled or bricked crossings that have a different texture. Devices such as rumble strips should be installed in the street in front of the crosswalks to warn motorists to slow down and pay attention. This should be done at both intersections and mid-block crossings. 

The GDOT may make objections since these roadways are state routes. They may refer to certain long-standing procedures or policies. You and your staff must not back down. You must pursue significant changes for the safety of your citizens, especially the hundreds of schoolchildren who cross these dangerous roadways each day.

4. Step up Enforcement and Explore Innovative Methods

The above measures may take some time to implement. In the meantime, you and the city staff must immediately and dramatically increase the enforcement of traffic violations. Stand near a busy roadway like South Candler Street for a few minutes, and you’ll witness dozens of examples of illegal and dangerous behavior: speeding, driving with phones in hand, running stop lights, failing to yield at crosswalks, tailing too close, passing illegally, etc. The Decatur Police Department should be given the directive and the resources to step up enforcement dramatically. Drivers should no longer be able to run lights or speed with impunity.

In some cases, the department may be unable to issue citations based on radar measurements of speeds less than ten miles above the posted limit due to Georgia’s outdated and dangerous legal code. But there’s no reason they can’t stop speeders and issue warnings. The goal is to make it clear that lawless driving is not tolerated. 

In addition to enforcing standard traffic laws, the city’s police should also step up enforcement of DUI infractions. Several serious crashes and deaths in the city have been tied to driving under the influence, but it’s an open secret that enforcement is lax. People in and around Decatur routinely drive under the influence, reasonably certain that they are unlikely to be caught. 

The city should undertake rigorous enforcement measures such as periodic DUI checkpoints (these are legal in Georgia). The goal is to make it clear that driving under the influence is not tolerated in Decatur.  

In addition, the city should adopt more innovative enforcement methods. Cities elsewhere in Georgia have been able to adopt strict speed enforcement by camera within their boundaries, even on state routes controlled by GDOT. Decatur’s leaders should aggressively explore such options and other policies, with the goal of ensuring that speeding and unsafe driving are not tolerated anywhere within city limits.

The city should also install red light cameras at intersections on arterials, and anywhere else neighbors request. For instance, neighbors on South Candler Street witness each day numerous motorists running lights at nearly every intersection, including the intersections at Kirk, Midway, and Brower. The city should immediately look into the installation of red light cameras at these and other intersections, perhaps most urgently the intersection at East College Avenue and Commerce Drive, where a fatality occurred on November 6, 2023. 

5. Adopt Vision Zero with Concrete Steps and Yearly Reviews of Successes and Failures

Finally, we call upon the city commission to formally adopt the Vision Zero initiative, as promised in the city’s most recent strategic plan. Vision Zero clearly states that we will tolerate no deaths by traffic in our city. 

But it’s not enough to adopt the language. We call upon the city to also develop a clear and comprehensive set of intended outcomes with specific steps and deadlines for reducing traffic fatalities and injuries, including periodic reviews of success.

As part of this initiative, the city must commit to systematically gathering and publicly sharing data about crashes involving cars, trucks, and buses within the city limits regularly (monthly or quarterly) and in a format that is easy to understand and use.

The city should periodically explain how it is using that data to identify places with the greatest dangers, and it must implement plans to decrease those dangers.

There is no time to waste. Nearly every day, another crash on our roadways makes clear the urgency. How many more people need to be wheeled away on stretchers? Take urgent action now.