Sandy Springs Transportation Master Plan Update

Sandy Springs is launching an update to the Transportation Master Plan. This is a major process that cycles every five years. Please participate, because this is a key opportunity to make Sandy Springs safer. Information is available here, https://www.sandyspringsga.gov/sandy-springs-transportation-master-plan . There will be meetings and community engagement sometime after New Years.

For now, there is a survey. Link on the page above, or if you want a direct link it's  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/sandyspringstmp

 

Please submit a survey response with your thoughts. For what it's worth, I'll share my responses below for each question,

1. 

First question on the survey asks to rank goals. These are fine but I think misleading because each option has to be condensed so much it lacks context. Of course "Safety" is good, all else being equal. I even ranked it right after my custom goal. But the real question with concrete choices about transportation infrastructure is managing tradeoffs. Here was my list:

1. Other
2. Safety
3. Improving well-being and minimizing environmental impact
4. Mobility and Accessibility for All
5. Land Use Integration
6. Economic Vitality
7. Maintenance, Resilience and Reliability
8. Beautification
9. Efficiency and Optimization

So all of these are good, as above. I specifically ranked "Efficiency and Optimization: Minimizing travel times and travel delay" last because my interpretation of the option, based on prior messaging from the government, is that this means higher motor vehicle speeds. I do want faster travel, but that is the wrong way to improve it and makes actual fundamental improvements harder. As mentioned in this earlier post the city is spending $60 million to widen a short stretch of Hammond. I predict this will end up being a huge waste with little improvement to travel times to justify that outlay, and I want to discourage that sort of misallocation.

2. 

Below the ranking of goals, there is a text box to enter your "Other" goal. My submission was based on my caveat above about this ranking exercise. The only way to achieve those goals overall, given Sandy Springs residents aging in place, hopefully new families coming in, plus the daytime population doubling as employees and shoppers come into Sandy Springs, is to get people out of cars and into other modes of transportation. 

As long as all of those trips are performed by driving, the reality of an ever larger quantity of large metal boxes moving around is that it'll be dangerous, burdensome, not accessible, inefficient, etc. So the overarching goal for now should be:

Mode shifting to safer, more widely accessible, and environmentally responsible modes of transportation like transit, biking, walking, away from driving. 

3. What primarily brings you to Sandy Springs?

Multiple choice to understand how respondents relate to Sandy Springs. Living, working, shopping here etc. Or even just driving through. I think it's good for the city to collect this data, although I wonder what they'll do with it.

Many people who do not live in Sandy Springs do have a valid interest that we should respect. The city has a policy of trying to have more jobs than residents, i.e., many people come into the city for work. Some of them work in corporate offices, and some of them are service workers directly helping Sandy Springs residents. Finding safe and convenient options is important for everyone. Right now a lot of workers along Roswell Rd have very long and unsafe commutes, and the city needs to get better transit service and safer sidewalks.

4. How do you usually get around Sandy Springs?

I do drive and take transit often enough, rarely bike. Probably the most frequent trips are relatively short walks.

5. Are there any other ways you sometimes get around Sandy Springs? (check all that apply)

I think this is a better question than 4. Some options are not convenient for everyone, but people who never do anything except drive probably have a skewed perception of how the city actually operates.

6. What issues do you face with the methods of travel you currently use to get around Sandy Springs? (check all that apply)

Tricky question because for people who use multiple modes of transportation, the downsides are probably different for each one. I selected based on walking,

• confusing, stressful or unpleasant
• feels unsafe
• doesn't well accommodate my limited mobility due to disability, age or other factors

To clarify I do not identify as having a disability. However an "other factor" is that I do care for my children and, e.g., have contacted the city about sidewalks or lack of sidewalks that are difficult to use with strollers. 

7. Are there any methods of travel you wish you could use more often? (check all that apply)

Do I ever wish I personally could ride bikes more often. My kids have asked me. Other kids have volunteered how they wish they could, but their parents rightfully tell them that Sandy Springs is too dangerous for them to ride bikes. 

 I also selected walking and taking transit. 

 8. What barriers do you face in using these methods more often? (check all that apply)

 I selected "unsafe" due to lack of high quality sidewalks and protected bike paths.

 For "Other" I entered:

Insufficient transit service. Sandy Springs should pay MARTA for bus lines running from Medical Center, rather than the 5 bus getting stuck in traffic within the City of Atlanta. 

9. Drag and drop to rank these potential changes to driving in the order you feel would make it better for you. (with 1 being the most important change and 5 being the least important change)

Similar the first question. 

Here is my ranking:

1. Safer roadway and intersection design
2. Other
3. Better roadway signage
4. Increased nighttime visibility
5. I don't drive and don't want to
6. Increased vehicle roadway capacity

For the last option about increased capacity, I interpret it as projects that will backfire on us. Sandy Springs already has I285, 400, and State Route 19 (Roswell). They are very dangerous. Shoving more drivers onto those roads will make them more dangerous and increase the risk of respiratory harm to all of us, particularly our youngest and oldest residents. Shoving more drivers through other roads will make those other roads dangerous. It's the wrong perspective on our problems.

10. If you have a potential change you marked as "other" above, please specify here (if this does not apply, please put N/A in the box)

For other, I wrote

Enforcement. Retain our speed cameras and expand automated enforcement as much as state law allows. Clearly communicate to the SSPD that the city council takes traffic safety seriously, because there is currently a message that council members complain when their misbehaving friends get fines.

This may be outside the scope of the master plan but it's important. Roughly a fifth of drivers I've observed when I bothered to count were actually cell phone users behind a wheel. Speeding is rampant. Drivers do not understand when pedestrians have right of way. Etc.

11. Drag and drop to rank these potential changes to transit in the order you feel would make it better for you? (with 1 being the most important change and 5 being the least important change)

Here is my ranking.  

1. More transit service
2. Other
3. More or better transit stop amenities
4. Better transit information/signage
5. Increase security on transit or at transit stations
6. I don't use transit and don't want to

In my experience the scariest part of riding transit are the drivers between transit and destinations, so I find it frustrating that security is mentioned here but not in question 9 about driving. 

12. If you have a potential change you marked as "other" above, please specify here (if this does not apply, please put N/A in the box)

For other I wrote:

Better connections to transit. Design guidelines should emphasize access for transit users on a safe path from the stop to the entrance. E.g., Hammond Park has fencing to block children from the nearest stop getting to the playground.

I wrote about this example previously here. But in general it's a problem that even for locations relatively close to transit lines, the actual path from one to the other is often hostile. Even if somebody never plans to use transit themselves it is just mean and disrespectful to ignore the service workers they depend on at their destination.

13. Drag and drop to rank these potential changes to walking in the order you feel would make it better for you? (with 1 being the most important change and 5 being the least important change)

My ranking

1. More sidewalks
2. Slowing vehicle traffic down
3. Other
4. More crosswalks or mid-block crossings
5. More shade trees along streets
6. I don't walk and don't want to 

 14. If you have a potential change you marked as "other" above, please specify here (if this does not apply, please put N/A in the box)

Here is my submission:

 Better sidewalks. Right now many of our sidewalks along Roswell lack a curb, so drivers do not even notice a bumb while they veer off the road. Sidewalks need higher curbs, separation from the road, and to be wide and flat enough for strollers, wheelchairs, etc.

 15. Drag and drop to rank these potential changes to cycling or scootering in the order you feel would make it better for you? (with 1 being the most important change and 5 being the least important change)

My list:

1. More bicycle lanes or improved existing bicycling lanes
2. More multi-use paths 
3. Slowing vehicle trafffic down
4. Other
5. More crosswalks or mid-block crossings
6. I don't cycle or scooter and don't want to 

 16. If you have a potential change you marked as "other" above, please specify here (if this does not apply, please put N/A in the box)

My submission: 

Create a bicycling lane network rather than isolated spots. Given the lack of recreational facilities in the southeast of the city, build bike lanes along Windsor and north/south streets so more residents can access Path 400. 

This is a summary of this previous post.

 

17. Do you have any other feedback about getting around Sandy Springs? (if this does not apply, please put N/A in the box) 

A meta comment

The city should be concerned about all people who get around Sandy Springs, not just drivers. This is especially true for getting better feedback. You have still not finished the crosswalk at the North Fulton Government Center so it's frankly unsafe for a non-driver to attend meetings there. Even City Springs subsidizes drivers by validating parking, but with no corresponding support to transit or bike riders.

Long time ago I went to a meeting purportedly about safe transportation at the North Fulton location and shared by thoughts about how inappropriate that was with the staff members who all drove there. People who are physically unable to drive need to go to that location for all sorts of critical government services. I crossed to the bus stop fine, but I wouldn't ask anybody else to especially if they had a disability.

 

Then there are some demographic questions to wrap up. I did "Decline to answer" about having a disability because as stated above, I have found myself pushing a stroller often enough.

New Bike Paths to link to Path 400 on Windsor Parkway

Sandy Springs is building an extension of the Path 400 multiuse path and a connection to Windsor Parkway.

Southeast Sandy Springs, 400 going up the middle and Windsor parkway going across

 

This is a great addition to the southeast corner of Sandy Springs, which is otherwise lacking in city recreational facilities. However, it lacks access. That section of Windsor only has a sidewalk on the north side, and the Path 400 access is on the south. That existing sidewalk is in bad condition for pedestrians and not necessarily safe for all strollers, wheelchairs, etc.

There is a general lack of accessibility in the area except for people who are driving. Children can't safely ride their bikes outside of short neighborhood streets. Sidewalks are generally in poor repair or of poor design.

The city should build protected bike lanes to connect the area to itself, and to Path 400. Starting with these roads, in descending order.

1. Along Windsor Parkway, from Roswell Road to the eastern edge of the city or at least to Peachtree Dunwoody.
2. High Point Rd, from Windsor to Glenridge.
3. Northland Dr, from Windsor to Glenridge. 

All of these roads are connected to many residential streets. Bike lanes would connect those neighborhoods to Path 400, and also to parts of Sandy Springs. Sandy Springs residents could use Path 400 for recreation. Kids would be able to bike to see visit their friends. Kids could even ride to school, at High Point Elementary, Atlanta Jewish School, and Ridgeview middle school. High Point and Northland connect to the existing bike paths on Glenridge, which are not protected yet but would allow even more people to use the network.

Long term, High Point could be connected to Roswell with bike lanes along other east-west streets between Glenridge and Roswell. That would enable more people to visit businesses along Roswell without having to drive or to ride along Roswell Rd.