February 4, 2022 | Take the Challenge

Transit Equity Day

Transit Equity Day is a national day of action to commemorate Rosa Parks' birthday by declaring that public transit is a civil right. This day of action is organized by a network of transit rider unions, community organizations, environmental groups, and labor unions.

February 4 was chosen because Rosa Parks is an iconic figure among many of the civil rights era who chose the tactic of refusing to give up her seat on the bus. This act of resistance highlights the rights of all people to high-quality public transportation powered by clean and renewable energy.

Transit Equity Day supports a just transition from the fossil fuel economy to clean, renewable energy as a way to confront the climate crisis. A just transition also requires that we uphold worker and civil rights: everyone should have access to free or affordable public transportation regardless of age, race, or class. Finally, a just transition means supporting the rights of workers to organize. 

Partner Organizations

To officials: will you take the Challenge?

1. Ride the bus to and from work or wherever you go on Friday, February 4th in honor of Rosa Parks’ birthday

2. Talk about your experience on social media to show solidarity with everyone who relies on transit to get around every day. Use hashtags #TransitEquityDay #TakeTransitATL 

3. Inform your constituents about what’s happening with transit in our communities (we made a list to make it easy). Be sure to talk about MARTA's bus network redesign, NextGen Bus, that's underway, and how it could affect/benefit riders. 

4. Adopt a resolution recognizing Transit Equity Day on February 4th, 2022. Thank you Atlanta City Council for adopting Resolution 3053 expressing support for the call to observe a day of action on public transportation as a civil right. The measure passed with 14 yeas and 1 nay. 

6. Take transit as much as possible throughout the month and beyond. Keep sharing stories of your own experiences as well as those of the riders you meet.

7. Vote for transit equity: more funding for transit and projects that address inequities in our systems and create a more equitable future.

Who's pledging?

• Atlanta Council President Doug Shipman
• Atlanta Councilmember Post 2 At-Large Matt Westmoreland
• Atlanta City Councilmember District 1 Jason Winston
• Atlanta Councilmember District 2 Amir Farokhi (Transportation Committee Chair)
• Atlanta Councilmember District 4 Jason Dozier
• Atlanta Councilmember District 5 Liliana Bakhtiari
• Atlanta Councilmember District 11 Marci Collier Overstreet
• Atlanta Councilmember District 12 Antonio Lewis
• Atlanta Department of Transportation Commissioner Josh Rowan
• MARTA Interim General Manager / Chief Executive Officer Collie Greenwood

To transit riders: challenge your elected officials!

• Contact your officials and ask them to take the challenge!

• We’ve asked our elected officials to take the #TransitEquityDay Bus Challenge by taking public transit to work, run errands, and other activities in their daily lives to experience firsthand what it’s like to navigate bus and train lines in Metro Atlanta. Not only can you join Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens in taking the bus to work, but you may run into Councilmember Jason Dozier while waiting at a stop or Representative Bee Nguyen on her way to the Capitol. If you spot your elected official participating in the challenge, post a pic on social with the hashtag #TakeTransitATL and #RidingWithJason or #RidingWithBee. 

• Even if you don’t see any officials out and about, you can still participate in the discussion with them by posting your transit commute with #TransitEquityDay #TakeTransitATL and letting everyone know what transit equity means to you. Posts on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #TakeTransitATL will appear below: 

Atlanta City Council is considering legislation that would launch the next era of Atlanta Streets Alive: tell our Councilmembers we want a car-free Peachtree Street every Sunday! 

The funding category of our 2021 policy agenda included the following recommendation: 

"The City of Atlanta fulfills its obligation to set aside 3.5% of the general budget fund, representing ~$25 Million, to the Public Infrastructure Maintenance and Improvement account (per City ordinance 14-O-1513), to address critical needs such as damaged sidewalks."

We're pleased to report this recommendation not only was adopted by Atlanta City Council in 2021 but that the percentage was increased from 3.5% to 5%! 

When we first realized there was existing city code that required a percentage of the annual budget to be set aside for infrastructure maintenance each year that could be used to fix sidewalks, streets, and bike/LIT (Light Individual Transportation) lanes, we wondered how those dollars were being spent. Clearly, the backlog of repairs that necessitated the Renew Atlanta bond meant it wasn’t going far. 

As we looked into it further, we realized there was no good way to track the funding, and that few people were aware the requirement existed. So we included a policy recommendation in our 2021 agenda: “Fund Public Infrastructure Account.

In January 2021, we reached out to Commissioner Josh Rowan with the Atlanta Department of Transportation to learn more. Here's an excerpt from our letter:

“The City of Atlanta’s infrastructure backlog is extensive — estimated in the 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) at $900 million — and widespread, ranging from broken sidewalks to crumbling bridges. In challenging economic times like these, we cannot afford to leave any funds to maintain our public infrastructure on the table. In light of this, I’m writing to inquire about the 3.5% set aside for public infrastructure in ordinance 14-O-1513 approved by the Atlanta City Council in February of 2015.”

The 2015 ordinance read “to create a public infrastructure maintenance and improvement account for the purpose of appropriating three and one-half percent (3.5%) of the City of Atlanta General Fund Budget to be phased in over a five year period at the beginning of each fiscal year to ensure adequate annual funding for routine maintenance, repair, and replacement of public infrastructure, and for other purposes.”

But a final step was missing from the 2015 effort — City Council had to legislate a change to the City’s charter.

Commissioner Rowan worked with the Mayor’s office and Councilmember J.P. Matzigkeit to make this change. A few months later, in February 2021, the fund was created. 

For everyone who has decried the condition of our streets, this is an important step towards well-maintained sidewalks and bike/LIT lanes as well as a victory for greater fiscal accountability and transparency. 

REFERENCES

• Atlanta City Council 2/24/21 meeting minutes 
• Ordinance 21-O-0082: COUNCILMEMBERS J.P. MATZIGKEIT, HOWARD SHOOK, ANDRE DICKENS, MATT WESTMORELAND AND AMIR R. FAROKHI TO AMEND CHARTER SUBPART A, ARTICLE 6, CHAPTER 3, SECTION 6-315 (B) SUBSECTION (3) OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA CODE OF ORDINANCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF INCREASING THE THREE AND ONE-HALF PERCENT (3.5%), APPROPRIATION OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA GENERAL BUDGET FOR THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENT ACCOUNT TO FIVE PERCENT (5%) IN ORDER TO ENSURE ADEQUATE ANNUAL FUNDING FOR ROUTINE MAINTENANCE, REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT OF PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

We're celebrating a success for this campaign! Safe Routes to School is funded in the City of Atlanta's FY '22 budget.

On September 6, 2019, 14-year-old Jermaine “J.J.” Wallace, Jr. was killed by a speeding driver as he waited for the school bus on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.

“His mother rushed to the scene to find her son in critical condition laying in the street. Paramedics rushed the Douglas High freshman to Grady Memorial Hospital, but he did not survive. Dorothy Porter, who is a mother of four, fought back tears as she talked to FOX 5 Aungelique Proctor about the unexpected loss. ‘My son was the life of this house. My son was everywhere. Everybody loved Jermaine Jr. Everybody. My son was an honor roll student. He never missed school,’ Ms. Porter recalled."

In Atlanta, some 8% of Atlanta’s streets account for 88% of fatalities and 52% of severe injuries, and just 10 streets account for one-third of traffic fatalities. Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, named after the prominent Atlanta civil rights attorney, is among the ten most dangerous corridors forming Atlanta’s High-Injury Network. 

High-Injury Network streets are not evenly distributed across the city — in fact, roughly two­-thirds of the network is located west of Northside Drive or south of I-­20. On the whole, neighborhoods with more miles of the High­-Injury Network had lower median incomes, a larger share of Black residents, higher rates of walking, biking, and taking transit to work, and lower rates of vehicle ownership.

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Pedestrian Safety Action Plan says Donald Lee Hollowell is one of the “top corridors in Georgia with clear patterns of pedestrian crashes that resulted in serious or fatal injuries,” and in 2019 its Atlanta Intown Multimodal Safety Analysis Study found that Hollowell was among the corridors with high rates of people being hit by speeding drivers.

For decades, residents have decried the lives lost and advocated for safety improvements for Donald Lee Hollowell. Tragically, their efforts were ignored — until recently. 

In 2018, the City of Atlanta asked the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to make a section of Hollowell near the Bankhead MARTA station safer with a lane reduction to reduce speed. GDOT’s District 7 denied the request at the time, but the pressure to prioritize safety over speed on state routes continued to grow. Community activism combined with attention from the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, PEDS, other organizations, elected officials, and City staff, along with GDOT’s own safety goals finally led to concrete results.

In 2019, following J.J.’s death, neighborhood leaders and elected officials organized a series of town hall meetings called “One Corridor.” Alongside public agencies and state elected officials, community members discussed the challenges facing people trying to use or cross Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway.

Around this time, GDOT initiated an analysis of state routes in Atlanta. The study, released in 2020, found that redesigning the most dangerous corridors could save lives through safer street designs (find out why some roads are more dangerous than others).

One year after J.J.’s passing, in 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. GDOT installed one pedestrian crossing, outside the Johnnie B. Moore Towers senior center, in January 2021. As of May 7, 2021, the power company had not turned on electricity to the signal. The timeline for the remaining two signalized crosswalks, planned for Woods Drive and Eugenia Place, remained to be determined. 

But better news was on the horizon. 

In the summer of 2020, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition gathered community members to form the Donald Lee Hollowell Safe Streets Committee with support from the Energy Foundation. Following six weeks of training on the basics of safe street design and advocacy, the committee got to work.

Now, there's a major milestone for a safer Hollowell — the announcement that GDOT will convert 2.8 miles of the corridor to three lanes with a center turn lane. The safety project is intended to meet community demands to reduce the dangerous speeds, add a buffer between the roadway and the sidewalk, and make crossing the street on foot, bike/scooter, or wheelchair safer and easier.

This safety project, shown here on GDOT’s website, "proposes a 4-to-3-lane road diet between SR 280 / Hamilton E. Holmes Dr / James Jackson Pkwy and Stiff St. The project would reduce total crashes by as much 47% and create space within existing right-of-way to install short strategic medians for pedestrian refuge/prohibiting unsafe conflict points, turn lanes, and pedestrian crossings along the corridor." 

At one end of this project, the intersection with Hamilton E. Holmes Drive / James Jackson Parkway, Hollowell transitions to two lanes. At the other end is Stiff Street, just past the Bankhead MARTA station. At this intersection, Hollowell has been widened to fluctuate between four and five lanes with a median.

A representative of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms stated that her support for reducing the number of lanes on Hollowell, saying “she has made it clear that the safety improvements on Donald Lee Hollowell are a priority.” 

The Donald Lee Hollowell Safe Streets Committee noted,

“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.” 

Resources

• High-Injury Network
• Georgia Department of Transportation Pedestrian Safety Action Plan
• Georgia Department of Transportation Board member Stacey Key celebrating the long road to a safer Donald Lee Hollowell in the AJC
• GDOT Project Information: 0017926 SR 8/US 278 FROM SR 280 TO CS 6701/STIFF STREET

Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway in the news

• "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)

It's time for Atlanta's leaders to elevate safe, equitable, sustainable mobility solutions to the top of the agenda.

Join the movement by signing on to our equity & mobility policy agenda today.

Thank you to the partner organizations who helped develop and support this agenda!

We are experiencing a breaking point in Atlanta’s mobility landscape. With the rise of shared mobility devices including e-bikes and scooters,  almost weekly we are reminded that streets built to prioritize cars aren’t sufficient for present-day Atlanta. People are dying. The narrative of putting the onus on the victims or people that choose to use these devices for last-mile connectivity—or even for fun—unfairly removes the responsibility from the people with the power to enact immediate solutions.

[This page has been updated with information about changes to the project that resulted from advocacy campaigns. For status updates on the Cascade project, visit the Renew Atlanta / TSPLOST webpage. Construction was initially scheduled to start in December 2020 but as of January 2021, it has been postponed to summer 2021.] 

Cascade Road, Cascade Avenue, and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard are three sections of one critical corridor that serves dozens of Southwest Atlanta neighborhoods.

Two of the three sections, Cascade Road and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, are part of the High-Injury Network and ranked among the most dangerous roads in the city of Atlanta. The third section -- connecting these two High Injury streets -- is Cascade Avenue.

On January 19, 2019, David Gordon, a 52-year-old beloved longtime resident of Cascade Ave, was struck and killed by a driver while crossing Cascade Ave. He was in a crosswalk. The collision happened less than a quarter-mile mile from where the street name changes to Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.

A “Complete Street” project was proposed in 2016 to address the hazardous conditions on Cascade Avenue, where David lost his life, but the construction funding was cut due to budget shortfalls. At the same time, thanks to the persistent work of community leaders and local advocates, in March 2019 Cascade Road in District 11 received funding to become a Complete Street. (Complete Streets are roads with safe spaces for people in all modes of transportation, whether they are walking, biking or scooting, and driving.) A section of Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in Westview was funded as well and completed in 2018. 

 Following a community-led #RespectCascade action to highlight the urgent need for safety improvements on Cascade Avenue, the City of Atlanta revised the Cascade Complete Street project to include some safety improvements that could be added during the street resurfacing. Elements include bus stop enhancements, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian safety improvements.

We will continue to support communities along Cascade Ave in calling on the City of Atlanta to keep the vision of a safer, more accessible Cascade corridor alive. 

GET INVOLVED IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD & NPU, AND GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY COUNCIL MEMBER

In a city of neighborhoods, safe streets for all begins at the neighborhood level. Here's how you can help make streets safer for everyone.

1. Join your neighborhood association. Attend meetings, speak up, and vote for policies and projects that will make streets safer for walking, biking, and people in wheelchairs and provide better access to transit for your community. Find out if there's a transportation committee and join if so - many recommendations made at the committee level get approved by the neighborhood association. 

2. Find your Neighborhood Planning Unit, also known as NPU, and attend monthly meetings. The City of Atlanta is divided into twenty-five NPUs: "citizen advisory councils that make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on zoning, land use, and other planning issues.  It is also used as a way for citizens to receive information concerning all functions of city government."

3. Because many of our calls to action involve contacting an Atlanta City Councilmember, get to know yours ahead of time! Click here to find your representative on the Atlanta City Council. Send them an email introducing yourself and sharing your desire for safe streets in your community. Follow them on social media to keep the conversation going! 

4. Once you are familiar with what's been happening at the neighborhood association and NPU level, at some point you may want to step into a leadership role. Neighbors can be the most effective advocates for safe streets in communities. Neighborhood chairs and other officers can join our Community Advocacy Network: a space for neighborhood transportation leaders to connect, share information, and learn from each other.