Pedestrian and Safety Improvements Coming to Inman
by Jack White
From December of 2013 through the following spring, local parent and resident Mary Stouffer chaired a multi-neighborhood PTO effort to promote pedestrian safety at Spark. It resulted in the school’s selection as one of two Georgia sites for a Safe Routes to School study of traffic and pedestrian challenges. That study – which included GDOT (property owners of Briarcliff Road) – was part of the process that led to the signal and crosswalk modifications at that school. To the best of our knowledge, those changes have worked out well.
A by-product of that process was a separate ‘Safe Kids’ study of the same issues at Inman, supported by Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta. Its main focus was similar – improving pedestrian safety. The eventual recommendations included upgrading the Virginia Avenue and Arcadia crosswalks to ADA standards and adding a HAWK crossing signal, both to make the pedestrian trip safer and to moderate the tendency of some drivers to speed down that road’s long unimpeded stretch from Park to Barnett.
Children’s Healthcare also provided much of the project funding. Because the city is supplying the rest, implementation seemed uncertain – until this past week, when Public Works informed Inman and our council member that the money would soon be available and that (since the school year had just begun) the project would begin as soon as possible, perhaps over the next few weekends.
The goals are laudable; Inman Principal Betsy Bockman has wanted pedestrian improvements on Virginia for some time. Having the Public Works Department react too promptly has not been a widespread challenge in this city; it’s a general concept that all citizens can support, as we do sharing plans in a measured way.
As noted, these crosswalks are at the Arcadia corner of John Howell Park. During that park’s recent rehabilitation, the local citizens made sure that all parties were aware of the stormwater improvements the city had made in this area over the last two decades. The construction around the volleyball courts did not alter stormwater flows at all, and neither will these changes, Public Works assures us. Nor should they diminish the capacity of the newly-widened corner plaza to accommodate small groups of kids waiting to be picked up after school (or just socializing), which was a specific park renovation goal.
We will share further updates and details on vahi.org. You may see the conceptual plans – they are not construction documents – here.
Jack White is a member of the VHCA Planning Committee and Board.