Another pedestrian death in Clayton County, near MARTA, where road design is deadly
According to news reports today, a wheelchair user was killed here by a car driver in Clayton County on Mount Zion Parkway, near this intersection.
This area has stores, sidewalks that include ADA ramps, and bus stop for MARTA’s 197 route all around. These are things that will logically generate pedestrian traffic.
But there are no crosswalks (it’s the same with other intersections nearby), and the roadway is obviously designed purely for car flow. Notice the awful slip lanes here, which basically tell drivers “keep moving and don’t bother to look for pedestrians.”
Deadly and ridiculous.
It’s not clear from the reports if the tragedy happened exactly at this spot on Mt Zion Parkway, but the specifics don’t matter — that’s because this same level of deadly design is present all along Mt Zion, especially and around the bus stops. It’s pervasive, and unconscionable.
For instance: this MARTA stop is on the same road in Clayton County where the wheelchair user was killed. Destinations are all around.
There’s no safe crossing in either direction. All you can do is run and pray.
And yet news reports will blame the dead pedestrians, with claims that they “darted into traffic” or were “outside a crosswalk,” never mentioning the deadly road design. Here’s the view from the other direction.
I’ll share this with the usual local leaders and point out that this deadly road design puts pedestrians and transit users in a lethal situation.
But I grow weary. So many deaths, and so little action when it comes to repairing our horrible urban design across the region.
We need many voices to call out for fixes to this unjust and dangerous situation on our roads, especially voices from the people who drive cars in these places, and who own businesses. Leaders need to hear from all road users that we don’t want to be a party to this injustice anymore.
