Last week we attended a raucous community meeting about the DeKalb Ave safety project organized by Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari and hosted by the Atlanta Departments of Transportation and Watershed. 

The communities surrounding DeKalb Ave needed this conversation because the project has been delayed for so long. But there have been so many meetings about DeKalb Ave since we launched the campaign to fix it in 2014! Any more and we'll need a shirt. 

Meeting in a nutshell

• The crowd went wild for removing the reversible lane
• LOTS of questions about why it’s taken so long for the repaving to start: ATLDOT said contractors will start resurfacing the street in summer 2023 and finish in September 2023 – unless it rains a lot
• Atlanta Influences Everything expressed how a lot of people feel

What’s really new

• a two-way protected bike lane between Rocky Ford Rd to City of Atlanta limits at Ridgecrest Rd
• A quiet crossing for the railroad crossing near Ridgecrest Rd. 
• Two-way protected bike lane between Inman Park MARTA station & Elmira Pl will be similar to the one on Cherokee Ave. Jargon ahead: they’ll use K71 bollards and zebra raised pavement markers to separate it from motor vehicles. Level of protection: not the highest level, but more than most.

Tidbits of interest

• DeKalb Ave was last repaved in the 1980s
• Neighbors want you to know DeKalb Ave is especially dangerous to drive on right now, partly because of confusion over the reversible lane, partly because of how big the potholes have gotten. Drivers are turning left from both lanes, making near-miss head-on collisions commonplace.
• That’s not the City circling potholes in white paint. The people want to know – who is this mystery person making our rides a little bit safer, one can of spray paint at a time?!

What’s next? 

• Don’t forget there’s a DeKalb Ave complete street project. We won’t!!!

Stay tuned for a Cascade Road complete street meeting in May.

We already have a shirt for that.

Image: Evey Wilson