Sandy Springs project T0019, available on the Sandy Springs dashboard, includes sidewalk upgrades on the east side of Roswell Road all the way from the southern edge of the city to I-285, and on the west side up to Long Island Dr. This is a long delayed and needed safety upgrade for the city.
Construction on T0019 has not started, but there are piecemeal upgrades to sidewalks as individual properties get developed. However, these upgrades leave driveways in roughly their previous condition. Before further sidewalk construction occurs, Sandy Springs should update its code for sidewalks to require continuous sidewalks. Most sidewalks in Sandy Springs just end when they reach a road or driveway. Continuous sidewalks make the path for pedestrians visibly and physically part of the sidewalk rather than the roadway. This reduces the fall risk for sidewalk users, by creating a flat and level surface, and also indicates to drivers that they should pay more attention.
An urgent care facility is nearing completion at the corner of Windsor and Roswell, and it demonstrates the need for continuous sidewalks. This facility is a great resource for the community and as far as I can observe the developer has done a good job complying with city code. I am using this facility as an example to talk about code and existing practice because as a new development, the builder could have constructed a continuous sidewalk over their driveway at minimal cost if the city had asked. It will be more expensive to remediate in the future, and disruptive to the business. So the city should update its code as soon as possible, before work begins on T0019.
Sidewalk upgrade at new facility at Windsor and Roswell
(if you already understand the problem and don't want to read details of the example, feel free to scroll down to the next section)
Here is a Google streetview of what this section of sidewalk looked like before the recent construction:
For reference in future pictures, note the streetlight post on the right of the driveway above and the high voltage power pylon on the left. You can see in this picture that the sidewalk is in terrible shape. There is only a small brick buffer between the main concrete surface and Roswell on the right hand side, and there is no curb at all to discourage drivers from driving onto the sidewalk on either side of the picture. The driveway itself is relatively narrow, which helps slow down ingress and egress speeds. Because the sidewalk is so low relative to the roadway, there is little vertical change as the sidewalk crosses the driveway. The sidewalk ends in diagonal lines separating it from the driveway, which helps drivers navigate their turns at the expense of everyone else.
I don't have a picture from that same perspective after the construction, but here is a picture from across the street.
The new building and new sidewalk are on the right. There is now a grass buffer zone between Roswell and the sidewalk. Even better, there is also a curb between the road and the grass. The driveway has become much larger. I'm not familiar with how design standards have changed since the original driveway was built, or if that has to do with the new buildings. But now the driveway extends almost to touching the bushes on the left, and has encompassed the streetlight pole on the right. Presumably that's temporary and the streetlight will get removed. For now it is a physical marker of the larger size of the new driveway.
From the perspective of a pedestrian heading north on the new sidewalk, the driveway is large. It feels like a hostile space intended for drivers, even though pedestrians have the right of way. Not only is this driveway a large space for a pedestrian to cross, it is also a physical message to drivers that they don't need to slow down much as they prepare to turn. [update: there will be a median in the middle of this driveway, separating entering and existing traffic, that was not visible at the time of this post. That helps somewhat.]
Pardon my lack of graphic design, but this sidewalk should have been built to continue through the driveway, something like this.
A flat and level surface would communicate that pedestrians should feel safe and comfortable crossing, and a corresponding bump and change of surface for drivers would communicate that they should proceed slowly and carefully.
Anecdotal experience at this location
I'm mindful of this location because I saw a child injured here a few years ago, and ever since I've taken note of how driveways throughout Sandy Springs follow this pattern. On the other side of this property, along Windsor Parkway, there's a similar driveway design. The sidewalk ends along a diagonal where it drops to the road surface.
A couple children were riding down this sidewalk, away from Roswell Road. As I was walking along Roswell I heard a loud scream, then turned and saw a child laying in this crosswalk. They were toward the right side where vehicles would enter the parking lot from Windsor. I ran over, and I could see that there was thankfully no blood nor head injury, but the child's leg was hurt and they were unable to move by themselves. Their parents were already on the way. At that point, my immediate concern was that a driver could drive into the driveway without paying attention to the child laying on the ground, or potentially be physically unable to see the child because their hood was too large. So I stood in the crosswalk for a few minutes to direct traffic in case anybody needed to enter. The parents came and carried their child into their car.
As a relatively healthy adult, even one who has traveled relatively widely on foot, I had never considered this problem. But after that incident I realized how these driveway designs are a fall hazard for children riding on sidewalks. They could also be a fall hazard for any pedestrian with limited mobility, such as an elderly resident in a nearby neighborhood who cannot safely drive themselves but could easily walk to this new urgent care facility without waiting for anybody's assistance if there was a safe path. This in turn led me to appreciate how continuous sidewalks are also traffic calming tools, physically reminding drivers to be careful while driving over a crosswalk. Drivers along this section of Roswell are frequently oblivious to the fact that they're in a public space with people who are not surrounded by metal cages. There's physically no way that all of the people in this area who do not drive, including many residents and also employees of businesses along Roswell, will ever use automobiles for all of their trips. It's incumbent on the city to make these spaces safer for them and anybody else who wants to use a sidewalk.
Continuous sidewalks are important for T0019 in particular because of the concentration of driveways
The whole city would benefit from continuous sidewalks. However it's especially important for T0019 because Roswell Road is the most dangerous surface street in Sandy Springs and it is full of driveways. I have not surveyed the entire road. Just along the east side of Roswell, for less than half a mile from the edge of the city to the Townes at Chastain townhomes, there are 17 driveways or intersections.
Investing in sidewalks is the right thing to do for safety. It's also the right thing to do for economic development. The reality is Roswell is never going to be able to handle much more vehicular traffic than it does now. If more people are going to get where they want to go, if local businesses are going to be able to get more customers and employees to serve them (often coming from further away, given local housing costs and no increase to our quantity of housing), then sidewalks are going to have to support more pedestrians and transit users.
However good the sidewalk is, if it is frequently interrupted by bad intersections then the sidewalk is never going to be comfortable for pedestrians. It will never encourage people to use the sidewalk if they have a choice. Consolidating driveways would help too, i.e., redeveloping the land to concentrate vehicles into fewer driveways. But however many driveways there are, they should be crossed by continuous sidewalks.
How to implement this change
Per city code, work alongside a state route like Roswell Road must comply with GDOT standards.
I'm no engineer but I can't see anything in these GDOT documents that bans continuous sidewalks across driveways: https://www.dot.ga.gov/DriveSmart/Travel/BikePed/ga_ped_guide.pdf , https://www.dot.ga.gov/partnersmart/designmanuals/encroachment/driveway.pdf
So hopefully this is just a matter of changing city code. At the least Sandy Springs could update the code for driveways on streets controlled by the city and then lobby the state to follow suit.
Per section 10.4.7, it looks like Sandy Springs already requires continuous sidewalks on similar city streets in this drawing, but this is not written out explicitly.
So the requirement for continuous sidewalks should be spelled out in section 10.4.9 which covers Roswell Road. Then all of the new sidewalks that will be built as part of T0019 will be much more valuable to the future of Sandy Springs.
-Vladimir
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