Boulevard SE is more than just another busy road, slicing through a neighborhood. It’s part of the connective tissue of five neighborhoods, from Grant Park to Boulevard Heights to Chosewood Park, Benteen Park, and Custer/McDonough/Guice, providing access to parks, schools, and local businesses. For years, neighbors have called for safer ways to walk, bike, roll, and drive along this corridor. Fortunately, Jason Winston, the City Councilmember for the area, listened.

Looking north on Boulevard, where four travel lanes turn into three, with street parking now used by restaurant patrons as much as residents. Photo: Propel ATL

From lawn signs to public meetings, the call for change has been clear: slow down traffic, protect people, and reconnect neighborhoods divided by fast-moving cars.

The purple line represents the scope of the project. Image courtesy of ATLDOT.

In 2017, neighbors came together and convinced the City of Atlanta to extend the Monroe Drive/Boulevard Complete Street project south, to transform a dangerous part of our public space into an integrated part of our community (read more).

In 2021, the City of Atlanta officially proposed a Complete Street project for Boulevard. After public feedback, the city chose a plan that would deliver safer infrastructure faster rather than waiting another five to ten years.

• Tuesday, August 23, 2016: Monroe/Boulevard Community Engagement Meeting
• Thursday, June 28, 2018: Boulevard Complete Street Project Open House
  • Friday, August 10, 2018: Deadline to submit public comment
• Thursday, November 16, 2023: South Boulevard Complete Streets project meeting
• Thursday, June 13, 2024: South Boulevard Complete Streets

Thanks to community voices, the project now includes new protected bike lanes, curb extensions to calm traffic, safer crosswalks with signals, and a design that reflects the posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour – a limit now rarely observed.

 
Examples of traffic calming: a protected bike lane (left) and a bulb-out. Photos: GK tramrunner RU (L) and Adrian Pingstone/Wikimedia Commons

These changes will help make the street safer for everyone, from people commuting to work to kids walking to school, families enjoying Grant Park, or the Beltline.

The Atlanta Beltline crossing at Boulevard, with an on-demand signal for trail users. Photo: Propel ATL

As with any project, there are tradeoffs. Today, as the project is about to be bid out for construction, a few residents are raising concerns about the protected bike lanes replacing the free, on-street parking spaces.

Scenes from a November 2023 public meeting. Photo: ATLDOT

A longtime advocate for a safer Boulevard responded: 

“It’s only through the power of the community's voice and nine years of community persistence that we got this to the point of construction. 

However, due to a small part of the community, this project is now under threat. We did not create this road design–the traffic engineers did, with substantial community input. Now, a small group of people who will lose access to on-street parking in front of their house are protesting the design. 

It is understandable that they don't want to lose something, but if this project goes back to the design stage, the whole project could fold, the money and timeslot we have to get this done will be gone, and this road will remain the dangerous blight that it is today for the next generation to come.”

The momentum is clear: our communities are being heard, and safer streets are finally being built.

Sign your name to support this project and protect it from the naysayers:  

This progress represents the power of the community's voice – the people who spoke up, showed up, and stayed engaged. Boulevard is changing because the community demanded better.