Recently, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) announced a partnership with five cities to "Rapidly Design and Build Low-Carbon Transportation Projects by 2020."
In the release, Mayor Bottoms said: “Atlanta is poised to build a 21st Century transportation system. With our forthcoming launch of the city’s first-ever Department of Transportation and access to the NACTO network’s expertise, we will emerge from the Climate Challenge with world-class bike lanes, important new sidewalk connections, and a team ready to deliver sustainable mobility options for all Atlantans.”
This is excellent news and we are looking forward to learning more about what this means for the City.
But let's not forget the City has already designed two sets of projects that would add bike lanes, safe crossings, and sustainable mobility for the last mile of people's trips -- these projects just haven't been built yet.
1. Cycle Atlanta 2.0 adopted in the Atlanta Transportation Plan. Based on rough cost estimates, the projects identified in Cycle Atlanta 2.0 would cost $10-15 million. Cycle Atlanta 2.0 included a safety project on West Lake Avenue, where a young man was killed in a car crash May 17th, as he pulled out of the MARTA station on a scooter.
2. Five "quick-build" projects from Cycle Atlanta 1.0 were approved for design by City Council in 2017, then went through community engagement. The list included a project on Whitehall Street with a favorable vote from each NPU and neighborhood organization along the corridor and a "shovel-ready" plan.
Whitehall today is your basic suburban street design: 4 lanes, 2 in each direction, no center turn lane to protect left turns or LIT lane. The quick build project would make all modes of transportation safer on this key connection from the West End/Adair Park to Downtown Atlanta. It should be built yesterday.