Make a positive impact for Atlanta’s K-12 students: Apply by February 28 to join your local Atlanta Public Schools GO Team

Policy change at the local level impacts the day-to-day experiences of our city’s residents. A major focus of our 2021 draft Board of Education Policy Agenda is for Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to ensure students have safe, convenient options to travel to and from school, and to help all children become more physically active by implementing proven strategies that promote walking, rolling, and riding transit to and from school. Read more

Biden-Harris administration off and running with promising leadership on transportation and climate goals; Georgia’s newly elected congressmembers value sustainable transportation

During his Senate confirmation hearing, President Biden’s nominee for United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s comments signaled a change in federal transportation priorities. Safety, jobs, climate — and trains — were the terms of the day. Buttigieg emphasized his “bottom-up” perspective as a mayor and we hope this experience will motivate reforms of federal transportation funding that benefit sustainable transportation projects and urgent local transit needs.  Read more

South Boulevard needs safer multi-modal infrastructure and safe speeds now!

People have been advocating for safety on Boulevard for years — whether you’ve been involved with A Safer Boulevard, left public comment about safety issues on South Boulevard back in 2016, set up a “Slow Down” or “Drive 25” sign in your yard, or attended one of last week’s South Boulevard complete streets meetings, it’s been made clear: this community needs safety improvements for people who walk, ride, and roll on Boulevard ASAP. Read more

We've grown! Help us celebrate new team members and staff advancements

Reclaiming Atlanta’s streets for people to walk, ride, and roll doesn’t happen overnight — that’s why growing inclusively and sustainably is one of the key goals we set in our 2020 strategic plan. Over the last six months, we’ve expanded our organizational capacity by building up our staff from a team of four to a team of seven. We’re thrilled to welcome our newly hired and recently promoted staff members: Rachel Stanley, Sagirah Jones, Rolanda Powell, and Margaret Mullins. Help us celebrate our new team; keep reading to learn about their journey to the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and what motivates them to spend their days working toward an Atlanta where everyone moves safely, easily, and sustainably. Read more

Welcome Senators-elect Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff

Congratulations to Senators-elect Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on their election to the United States Senate! We eagerly look forward to working with both of our new Georgia senators to adopt equitable federal policies that support people's transportation needs in ways that are sustainable, affordable, and healthy. Read more

Q2 Stakeholder Briefing recap: engaging advocates across Atlanta for safety and equity in our streets

On November 19th, we held our Q2 stakeholder briefing — what a treat to spend time with so many committed advocates — both new and seasoned! If you weren’t able to attend live, you can watch the full briefing and review the slides: Read more

What's happening on DeKalb and Cascade?

The City of Atlanta has two main transportation funding initiatives: the Renew Atlanta bond approved by voters in 2015 and the transportation sales tax (TSPLOST) voted in during 2016. By 2019, the City announced it had less money and higher project costs than anticipated. As a result, the original project lists would have to be reprioritized. Public participation in this process resulted in a clear mandate for the City to focus on building “complete street” projects; however, not all of those projects made the final list.  As a result, we focused our 2019-2020 street campaigns on two complete street projects with strong community support that were not fully funded: Cascade Avenue in SW Atlanta and DeKalb Avenue in the southeast. We worked with community members in neighborhoods along both corridors to organize street actions and engage residents and businesses to advocate for safety improvements through the resurfacing projects that were funded for each. As a result, we were able to get some of the changes we wanted. Read more for the current status of the projects and what your support and advocacy have helped accomplish so far! We'll also share what we're working on next when it comes to street campaigns and our goal of holding the City accountable to build the projects in its plans.  Read more

Reviewing the City of Atlanta Tactical Urbanism Guide

In August, we blogged about the City’s anticipated tactical urbanism permit program with examples of tactical urbanism (also known as popup or demonstration projects) and opportunities for community groups to design and implement low-cost improvements to roadways and other public spaces. We’ve pushed for an expedited approval process to allow neighborhoods to safely, efficiently, and legally implement these projects for years, most recently through our 2020 Legislative Policy Agenda.  In October, the Atlanta Departments of City Planning and Transportation released the Atlanta Tactical Urbanism Guide, which includes a list of eligible projects, design standards, and materials palette. The guide also describes the process for approval, with a list of required documents. We’re excited to see the City support local efforts to make small but incremental changes in Atlanta neighborhoods, and we believe these temporary projects can harness our community’s creative talent to make a lasting impact on the safety and vibrancy of our streets! What follows here is a brief review of the Tactical Urbanism guide and the submission process: what we like, what we would like to see added, and key changes to make the process smooth and accessible for all residents. These suggestions will be sent to the City, and we will keep you updated. We are also planning to participate in a small tactical project with a neighborhood to provide additional feedback. Read more

Engineering over enforcement to address street racing and other forms of speeding

Across the United States, some 40,000 people are killed each year in crashes with cars. Here in the City of Atlanta, 73 people were killed in traffic in 2019. That's 73 families who will never be the same after the loss of their loved one. People driving too fast is the primary cause of deadly crashes in our city. Street racing has gained popularity throughout the U.S. during the pandemic as people look for outdoor entertainment, but it can be dangerous for drivers, observers, and people who simply happen to be nearby. Atlanta residents’ concerns about the high speeds led the Atlanta City Council to set a minimum fine of $1,000 and up to 6 months jail time in August. Now, legislation being considered by Atlanta City Council would require anyone arrested for street racing to go before a judge before they could be released from jail.  2020’s protests for racial justice have elevated the recognition that the use of armed police force is not a good solution to societal problems-- including traffic safety. We opposed the use of armed police as a tool to achieve zero traffic deaths because it endangers the very lives this policy seeks to preserve--disproportionately putting Black and Brown people at risk--while wasting public resources on ineffective approaches.  Street racing and other forms of speeding are a major barrier to safe streets. That's why we recommend the following more effective ways to address it:  Read more

First quarterly stakeholder meeting recap: progressing toward strategic goals, new opportunities for community involvement, and more!

On August 20, 2020 we hosted our first-ever quarterly stakeholder meeting. Many thanks to everyone who spent the evening with us--what a great turn out!  No worries if you weren’t able to make it--we’ve shared a few highlights below, plus you can watch the full briefing and/or review the slides at your convenience:   Read more

A new name for a new direction? Please weigh in!

When we embarked on expanding our mission and defining our strategic plan in 2019, we connected with a lot of people. We thought at the time that a name change might follow our expanded mission. Now, over a year later, we have several names for you to consider. Here’s how we got here. Read more

Operations and staff updates: Summer 2020

A lot has changed since we last gave a staff update in Spring 2019 and published our first series of actions in response to COVID-19 in March 2020. The public health pandemic continues to affect our operations, programs, staffing, and advocacy. Read more for more adjustments we've made this summer.   Thank you for continuing to support our mission and work. You are what powers this movement!  Please reach out if you have ideas or questions.   Read more

Remove Police Enforcement from Vision Zero

Editor’s note: Recently we echoed what many Black and Brown leaders in the mobility sector have been saying for years: there is no mobility justice without racial justice. The post below was written by multiple staff members and partners and is part of an ongoing series of statements, media, policy changes, and actions our organization is taking with the goals of rooting out white supremacy and systemic racism from our organization and from transportation and to advocate anti-racist policies.  Traffic stops make our streets less safe for Black, Brown, Immigrant, and Indigenous communities. Today we sent a letter to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms calling on the City of Atlanta’s Department of Transportation Vision Zero program to remove police enforcement as a Vision Zero tool. This is a collaborative effort of PEDS, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, Georgia STAND-Up, and TransFormation Alliance. Act now to call on the City of Atlanta to remove police enforcement from Vision Zero   Read more

ATL DOT FY2021 budget

Last week we launched our "Essential Transportation" campaign calling for the City of Atlanta's fiscal year 2021 budget to prioritize urgent transportation needs. The young Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATL DOT) presented its first full budget request at a briefing to Atlanta City Council, which we live-tweeted. We need your help! Take action to support Essential Transportation then join us for a virtual budget watch party June 2nd at 6:15 pm (Facebook event coming soon). Read more for what the ATL DOT highlighted from their budget request.  Read more

Atlanta Streets Alive 10th Anniversary + What's Next?!

When we launched Atlanta Streets Alive in 2010, we set out to shift Atlanta’s culture. We wanted to inspire Atlantans to re-envision and reclaim our city streets as public spaces for people. Now, 10 years, 29 open streets demonstrations, 83 miles, and 1.7 MILLION participants later, a modest mile on Edgewood Avenue has evolved into an award-winning initiative. It’s clear that Atlanta Streets Alive has been embraced by Atlantans as part of our city's cultural signature. So where will the next decade take us? Read more

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