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A safer Hollowell for community members is long-overdue – you can help make it happen! 

Click here to call on city and state officials to support & extend the planned safety project

The Issue

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Pedestrian Safety Action Plan calls Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway one of the “top corridors in Georgia with clear patterns of pedestrian crashes that resulted in serious or fatal injuries.” 10 people were killed after being hit by cars on Hollowell Parkway between 2017-2021, making it among Atlanta's deadliest roads on the High-Injury Network. 3 were killed while walking or crossing the street (data from GDOT's Crash Data Portal.) 

Then, in 2022, three more people were killed as they tried to cross Hollowell by speeding drivers in separate incidents. One was described by their family as "a skilled carpenter/mechanic by trade... a people person [who] never met a stranger." The driver of the car who hit him eventually stopped in a gas station to report the crash. Another was "hit and left to die." The driver who hit her has not been found. 

In 2019 the Atlanta Intown Multimodal Safety Analysis Study found that Hollowell was among the corridors with high rates of people being hit by speeding drivers. (Find out why some roads are more dangerous than others). 

Community-based solutions

Clearly, a solution to this well-documented pattern of tragedy, outcry, and inaction is long overdue. 

• 2019: after J.J. Wallace’s tragic passing, neighborhood leaders and elected officials organized a series of town hall meetings called “One Corridor”  to discuss the challenges facing people trying to use or cross Donald L. Hollowell Parkway.
• January 2020: the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) responded to community calls for safety with the announcement that it would install three signalized crossings on the corridor. 
• Summer 2020: we partnered with community members to form the Donald Lee Hollowell Safe Streets Committee. Community members studied safe street design and made safety requests of GDOT, noting “We are honored to advocate for a corridor with such an inspirational namesake. Donald Lee Hollowell’s work should be further honored by improving the street to prioritize safety and inclusion.”  
• 2021: GDOT installed one of the pedestrian crossings outside the Johnnie B. Moore Towers senior center. The other two pedestrian crossings promised were added to a safety project between Hamilton E. Holmes Drive / James Jackson Parkway and Stiff Street (2.8 miles in length) that will convert the corridor to three lanes with a center left-turn lane. This safety project is intended to meet community demands to reduce dangerous high speeds of cars, add a buffer between the roadway and the sidewalk, and make crossing the street on foot, bike/scooter, or wheelchair safer and easier. 
• 2022: GDOT launched community engagement for the safety project. You can follow the safety improvements and other projects planned for Hollowell here. The map below is from the GDOT Hollowell projects page, which includes a link to the summer 2022 updates.
• 2023: We partnered with Brittany Glover's family to hold a memorial & rally for safer streets in her memory: read about the rally

In addition to the safety project, we’re paying close attention to the “scoping study” (PI # 0015382) to make sure it continues the trend of prioritizing safety for this high-speed corridor. 

Hollowell crashes in the news

• Father, former Atlanta firefighter killed in hit and run; no arrest made (WST-TV2, November 30, 2022)
• Mother appeals to Atlanta City Council for changes after daughter killed in hit-and-run crash (Fox 5, November 10, 2022)
• Woman hit and left to die along busy road; Atlanta police searching for driver (WSB-2, September 19, 2022)
• "Microsoft's planned Grove Park campus, other projects, spur urgency for pedestrian safety" (Atlanta Business Chronicle, July 2021)
• "Opinion: Improving safety on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway Corridor" (AJC, April 2021)
• "False text message enraged Atlanta residents over road project" (AJC, Feb 2021)
• "Atlanta council may override of mayor's veto on road deal" (AJC, Feb 2021)
• "'Relief' comes to Hollowell Parkway as crosswalk installed on deadly stretch of road" (AJC, Jan 2021)
• "Pedestrian unfriendly: after deaths on Hollowell Parkway, residents await fixes" (AJC, Oct 2020)
• "Police say pedestrian killed by hit-and-run driver" (AJC, Sep 2020)
• "GDOT to add crosswalk where 14-year-old was hit, killed while waiting for school bus" (AJC, Jan 2020)
• "Mother of teen killed in hit and run speaks" (Fox 5 Atlanta, Sep 2019)
• "Teen hit by car walking to school remembered for his kindness: He was a 'one-of-a-kind child'" (King5, Sep 2019)