Thursday, July 31, 2014

Chesnut / North Peachtree Crosswalk


Standing on a corner in Dunwoody GA in front of Chesnut Elementary School, working with school representatives and public works to determine the best place for a crosswalk.

Update: This afternoon I met with Devin Ramo and Lori Hummel of the Chesnut Parent Teacher Council, Mrs. Williams the Principal of Chesnut and Mrs. Mindy Sanders the City of Dunwoody Capital Projects Manager to discuss all possible crosswalk options and the pros and cons of each option.

In the end after much discussion and sensing the frustration of Mrs Williams, I point blank asked her with all of your knowledge of the school and the flow of your students where would you want the crosswalk? She stated near the bus lane (now called Dr. Richard Reid Circle), just north of the current crosswalk.

We thought that the crosswalk should ideally end on school property with no other crossings where vehicles transverse, be located near the front of the school but also needed to be in a location with only two lanes of traffic where there was no car pool lane. Since the car pool lane was troubling the design, we sketched an idea to bring back to the traffic engineers whereby concrete would be added to add a pedestrian landing / moving the start of the car pool lane and placing the main crosswalk to Chesnut at that location.

Below is a photo of what the traffic engineers and safety professionals will be reviewing.


I explained to Mrs. Williams and the PTC members that we would need to revert back to a status quo for the start of the school year but in the end there will be an upgraded crosswalk with lights engineered safety improvements that everyone can be proud of. Somethings just take time.

1 comment:

John Heneghan said...

The saga of the Chesnut crosswalk is moving to a head as the City has installed the engineered solution that the traffic professionals say is best (pg 30).

DeKalb County School professionals will be reviewing the proposed layout in the next few days as the community of parents and staff have many concerns specifically as to the location being so close to the car pool lane and forcing the children to cross this additional lane. I am guessing this configuration will be tested and if not appropriate it will be reevaluated.

Wednesday night I attended the initial Chesnut PTA meeting and about 8 pm on my walk home, I decided to test the new crossing with flashing lights.

Well..., this might not have been the best first test of a lit crosswalk?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJR2S1OFn_U