New Urban Roswell Review

Downtown Atlanta could use some work. These nature band aids as Jim Kunstler would call them don't make pedestrians feel warm and fuzzy.We're playing a little catch up here with the backlog of interesting stories that are worthy of comment.  Here's a recap of what we've seen out there on the interwebs of late.

First though, I could probably do a whole post on this but I thought everyone would like to read what Jim Kunstler started is blog post recapping his trip to Atlanta for CNU18 with...  "If the Devil created an anti-city, a place where people would feel least human, Atlanta would surely be that place -- despite the prayerful babble of tongues emanating from the evangelical roller rinks at every freeway off-ramp.:  To read the full post click here.  Also, his most recent podcast focuses on the city of Atlanta and you must check out his post The Horror of Downtown Atlanta. It's hysterical and painful all in the same breath.

Roswell

Georgia DOT and City of Alpharetta Plan Improvements to Hwy 9, Eventually - North Fulton Blog

Personally, I think Alpharetta needs the city center project a whole lot more than it needs a beautified Main St/Hwy 9. I drive that route every day at rush hour from Roswell to Windward Pkwy and back. It is rare that there is significant congestion. Don’t get me wrong, it does get backed up but nothing like other areas. The more you cater to the car, the more cars will come. I do like the fact that there will be sidewalks and the streetscape will be beautified but that won’t do as much for the city. What has a beautified streetscape on Windward done? It’s brought a bunch of crappy development that can’t be accessed by anything other than a car. Yes, there are sidewalks but they don’t get much use. 

Roswell to Present Plans for the Big Creek Bridge Road Project - AJC

Any relief to the dreaded congestion on Holcomb Bridge Road is welcome.  There will be an informational session held at the Doubletree on Holcomb Bridge Rd in Roswell from 630pm - 830pm on Tuesday June 15th.  The current plan is for a two-lane road with bicycle lanes and a multi-use trail which will connect east and west Roswell across Ga. 400.

Georgia

Four Keys to How HB277 Can Mean a Better Transit System for Metro Atlanta - Saporta Report

Here's a sneak peek at the four keys...  Read the article if you want more detail. 

1. Allow road and transit projects to compete evenly.

2. Create the right road/transit balance.

3. Persuade the region that we all benefit from the plan.

4. Create a truly regional transit system.

Notable Excerpt: Georgia ranks 49th in per capita spending for transportation and is the only state among the ten largest (and one of only six overall) that provides no state funding for transit.

State Wants Federal Money for High Speed Rail - Georgia Public Broadcasting

Apparently the GDOT has been doing a little work on some rail planning.  We've already fallen behind the 8 ball in the HSR game but I guess it's never too late to ask for help.  The state is asking for $16.5M to plan the construction of a HSR loop that would go from Atlanta to Athens to Augusta to Savannah to Macon and back to Atlanta.  Wow!

Funding Key for Cobb Light Rail Proposal - AJC

This came as a surprise to me.  I had never thought of a light rail system in Atlanta that connected to no other train systems.  Essentially, Cobb is looking at a 14 mile light rail line running from the Cumberland Galleria area in Smyrna to the Town Center area in Kennesaw.  It would link into bus systems but it would  not connect to any other rail systems.  In a way, I like the idea as it will reduce traffic along a major corridor but I think I'd have to see a lot more TOD in the area to be convinced that it would really work.  It wouldn't be in place until at least 2019, so we can take some time to figure it out.

Beyond

The Man Who Reinvented the City - The Atlantic

This interview with Andres Duany definitely sparked some buzz. His suggestion that the millenial generation behaves like locusts when they find a downtown area with atmosphere, basically coming in in huge groups that the area wasn't designed to accommodate and ruining the urban fabric, caused quite a stir. This is worth a read. Good luck loading the comments though. 

Smart Growth Incorporates Lessons from Planning Mistakes - Washington Post

This op-ed from Roger K. Lewis makes a good, layperson case for smart growth. It addresses the common concerns from most suburban dwellers about density, road building and traffic congestion. It is the common mis-conception that smart growth will immediately bring downtown urbanity to the suburbs and that quiet suburban neighborhoods will be forced to accommodate throngs of automobiles and traffic. This just simply isn't the case and more op-ed's of this nature are needed to help people understand.

Detroit to Demolish Itself, Historic Homes and All - WSJ.com

I've really been curious about how Detroit is going to deal with the shrinking of it's population.  It has approximately 90,000 vacant or abandoned structures.  They are planning on tearing down 3,000 of those before the end of September.  

Notable Quote: "Neighborhoods that are considered stable are now at 20% vacancy," said Deborah Younger, a development consultant involved in the demolition effort.

Feds Approve High Speed Rail Plan - CFCnews13.com

Florida continues to stay one step ahead of Georgia (and this isn't just football).  They have received federal approval for their HSR plans to connect virtually all of the major cities in the state.  

Facts & Fun Stuff

Planetizen posted a really cool Periodic Table of Planning

Streets take up approximately 1/3rd of the typical american city.

One in five American drivers could not pass the written driving exam. 

Walkscore Ranks Turner Field the 24th most walkable baseball stadium in MLB.

Fire Truck Fail

Watch & Learn: James Howard Kunstler - The Tragedy of Suburbia

Our second installment of the weekly video is a great piece by one of my favorite pundits on suburbia and new urbanism, James Howard Kunstler. Always provocative, this is a very entertaining talk that he gave at TED in 2007. He also has a recent podcast about his recent trip to Atlanta for CNU18. I will link to that in a subsequent post. Enjoy...

Do you have more than two entrances/exits to your neighborhood?

An unfortunate by product of our cul-de-sac nation is the proliferation of neighborhoods with only one entrance.  The cul-de-sacs feed the collector roads and the collector roads (Norcross St) feed the arterials (Holcomb Bridge) creating the need for all cars to go to the same road to go anywhere.  The problem is simple, you can't get anywhere easily and neither can anyone else.  The benefit, your kids have a nice, usually safe, place to play until their pre-teen years.  After that, mommy turns into soccer mom and now lives a meaningful life complete with packing the car, shuttling the kids to and from all of their daily activities and then unpacking the car.  Some people like this lifestyle but I think more of them don't realize that there is an alternative.

The alternative is well connected streets in neighborhoods with a mix of uses that include parks, ball fields, schools and businesses that kids can visit.  Let's not forget that they might be able to walk down a sidewalk to their friends' houses a block or two away.  The map below is a good illustration of a networked (not perfectly) street grid and a dendritic street grid here in Roswell.  Now, forget about the demographic for the moment and just consider life for a kid in one of the two areas that are highlighted.

Now, the three neighborhoods in the red box are completely unconnected to each other or the city park right next door.  In order for the kid living in the top left of the box to get out to the adjacent lot on Norcross Street, they would have to go all the way down to Grimes Bridge, hang a left and then hang a left on Norcross Street.  You may be looking at a mile walk, bike or ride to go to the lot in your back yard.  Another example is the western most lot on Meadowland Dr trying to get to Waller Park.  Hang a right on Grimes Bridge, then another right on Oxbo and then down to Dobbs Dr.  You're looking at about two miles to get about 500 feet.  Obviously, kid's aren't going to do this, they are going to climb a fence or trespass on someone's property to take the coveted shortcut.

Now, if you take a look at the streets highlighted within the green block, you can see that there is well connected network with many more options to getting in and out of the neighborhoods.  As the city begins to reinvest and encourage development in these kinds of areas, you will see a very swift recovery and the residents will experience a completely different environment than those in the red box.  

The point of this is that our neighborhoods should have many more entrances, exits and connections than they were built with.  At this point, most of our neighborhoods are kind of stuck.  There are some options for pedestrian activity as Kaid Benfield pointed out in a post back in October.  Neighborhoods faced with this dilemma should strongly consider putting in paved pedestrian and bike paths to connect their cul-de-sacs and dead ends.   New development should have a connectivity mandate and work to reduce congestion rather than create it.  I think we are moving in the right direction here in Roswell with many of the plans that are being put in place.  Only time will tell.

Watch & Learn: Andres Duany on New Urbanism

We are starting a regular post (hopefully weekly) of videos that are insightful and related to new urbanism and smart growth. We couldn't think of a better video to kick off the series with than a primer on new urbanism from the founding father himself, Andres Duany. This is a series of 9 clips from YouTube from a lecture that Andres did in San Antonio quite some time ago. Don't let the age of the video deter you though. The principles of New Urbanism are for the most part timeless and you won't find a better person to give you an overview. This series is pretty much a short overview of the book Suburban Nation. Enjoy...

Is there a park or public space (not a road) within a 5 minute walk of your home?

Sloan Street Park has a small playground and a little field that is inviting to the residents and visitors of the Mill Village area.Parks and public space is, in my opinion, one of the areas where our city excels.  Roswell is actually one of the metro Atlanta cities with the largest amount of park space per capita and it is apparent that people use it.  The city of Roswell estimates that there are around 2 million park visits annually to the city park system.  I live within a 5 minute walk of four parks and several trails and I use them almost daily and there are always visitors.  

Unfortunately, not every resident has the luxury of walking to the park.  Lack of walkable park access becomes more and more prevalent the further from the historic district you get.  But, the park space, over 900 acres not including the national park system, is distributed out with some of the larger parks away from the historic district.  

When you compare Roswell to the city of Atlanta, we're doing just fine though.  As of 2008, Atlanta had only 4.5% of its land dedicated to park space.  That was the lowest among the top 25 largest cities.  The Beltline will help increase that significantly though.  Now, Roswell actually trailed Atlanta in this area with only 4% of our land dedicated to parks and greenspace.  This seems bad but we must also take a look at population.  Comparatively speaking, the city of Roswell has 13.5 acres of parks and greenspace per 1,000 residents compared to the city of Atlanta's 7.7 (2007 data).  The national average is 13.6 acres.  Now, 13.5 is good when you compare us to our anchor city to the south however we might want to look to our neighboring county to the east for a few tips.  From 2000 to 2008, Gwinnett county acquired over 9,000 acres of new park land and was named the best large park system in America by the National Parks and Recreation Association. (I still can't bring myself to like Gwinnett though).  They are at 15.5 acres per 1,000 residents.  

If I could wave a magic wand and make one change to the park system here in Roswell, I would immediately take foreclosed or abandoned properties and turn them into pocket parks such as Sloan Street Park.  The goal would be to have a park within a walkable half mile of 90% of the residents of Roswell. Ideally, every child would have a park within a quarter mile walk but with the dendritic road system that we have, that just would not be possible.

So, to answer the original question,  'Is there a park or public space (not a road) that is within a 5 minute walk of your home?, the answer is likely no.  Roswell, we still have some work to do here and the focus, in my opinion, should be on small neighborhood parks instead of big multi-use parks with ballfields and such.

Source: AJC

CNU18 Review

Atlanta recently played host to the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism aka CNU18. The theme of this year's congress was New Urbanism: Rx For Healthy Places. It was put on with support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here in Atlanta. The event brought leaders in New Urbanism and Smart Growth to Atlanta for several days. There were obviously a number of lectures but I think the biggest win for Atlantans might have been the 18 or so tours that went on in the area.

We even had one here in Roswell that was hosted by our very own Lew Oliver of Whole Town Solutions as well as the AIA and ICA. I helped out at the event pouring wine for tour participants (and myself) at Bulloch Hall. From what I could tell, the event was a success and our guests went away with a good feel for our city and the classical architecture that has been well preserved here.

Here is a video that kicked the conference off.

Now, I didn't attend the conference as I just don't have that kind of dough hanging around. However, I have scoured the internet to find videos, podcasts and articles that will give you a pretty good overview of what went down.

Video:

David Byrne speaking about new urbanism and bicycling

Part 1

Part 2

Podcasts

Strong Towns Presentation

Strong Towns Blog Post

James Howard Kunstler

Andres Duany on the Smart Growth Manual

Articles

David Byrne on Bicycles, Atlanta's Sprawl and Burying Highways - Creative Loafing Notable Quote: “…if you only drive to meet people exactly like yourself, you aren’t really sharing ideas, you’re just reinforcing your own pre-existing ideas. The thing about many cities — and getting out of the tin bubble — is that they facilitate random encounters, inspirations and connections.”

CNU Folks Pray for City Build for People and Bicycles - Saporta Report Notable Quotes: “I personally feel like the new urbanists bend over backwards to accommodate cars,” Brewer said, adding that one of his favorite places in the world is Eze in France, which is built into a hill on two-and-a-half acres — too compact a community for cars. “Why aren’t we new urbanists building new Ezes?” Brewer asked. “Why aren’t we more willing to put cars out. Keeping cars out means peace and quiet.

Beaches, Booze and Briefs: A New Urban Odyssey and Retail Lament - Place Shakers Blog Notable Quote: "CNU 18 was inspirational, uplifting and educational as usual, however, Atlanta’s downtown tourist district offered only a regrettable shopping experience. It was nearing my 9th day quickly and it dawned on me that in order to buy new shirts, pants, socks, and under garments for everyday use (and not consisting of souvenirs) I was at the mercy of a car and regional retail on the suburban fringe."

New Urbanists Convene in "Sprawlanta" Seeking Solutions to Bright Flight - Fast Company Notable Quote: "the suburban poor population grew at roughly five times the rate of the city poor population over the decade." The result is what has been termed as "bright flight" -- the shift among younger, highly educated, higher earning Americans from suburbs to cities, overturning the pattern of their parents' and grandparents' generation."

New Urbanism for the Apocalypse - Fast Company

Interesting Facts:

Georgia's CNU membership as of 2008 ranked 7th in the US. (Better than you might have thought)

Atlanta has the highest number of babies born in traffic of any U.S.

If you have any additional links or if you would like to add to the discussion, please post your comments.

New Urban Roswell Review

We haven't posted a NUR Update in a while but that doesn't mean it has been quiet.  Probably the biggest event recently was the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU18) that was held two weeks ago downtown.  Tours were held all over the metro area and we were lucky to have one right here in Roswell.  There were so many stories related to CNU18 that we decided to do a separate post.  Below you will find a rundown of everything that we have found notable over the past several weeks aside from CNU18.

Roswell

Faulty Lights Cause Confusion in Roswell - NorthFulton.com

Those darn reversible lanes.  I really think it's time to start on the South Atlanta Street project before someone gets killed.  

Metro

Jaywalkers Take Deadly Risks - AJC

This is a must read.  It is a telling case of how suburbia, bad urbanism and planning can combine for deadly outcomes.  Essentially, the article details just how dangerous the suburbs are for pedestrians, especially those who ride the bus.  Notable quotes: "21 to 25 percent of pedestrian crashes occurred within 100 feet of bus stops and 41 to 48 percent happened within 300 feet.", "Transportation for America, which advocates against sprawl and in favor of walking and mass transit, ranks Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta as the 10th-most dangerous metro area for pedestrians."

Water Stewardship Act A Strong First Step, More Green Steps Needed - Saporta Report

We are pleased to see that conservation has finally made it into our legislation concerning our water resources.  Additionally, it is also encouraging to see that water is now being viewed as an asset that is in limited supply.  We should be working on ways to reduce our water usage on all fronts as well as ways to ensure that the water filtering down into our watersheds is not polluted as is much of the runoff that reaches our rivers and streams today.  Notable quote; "In the end, SB 370 will be the strongest water conservation measure in the United States when it becomes law." 

Gwinnett Towers to be Dismantled - AJC

Does Success No Longer Live There? I think I like Gwinnett just a little bit more now. Well, just a little bit. I still find it disgraceful for the most part. The land use patterns in that county are some of the worst in the nation and the sprawl induced traffic is deadly if you hit it at the wrong time.  There are a few things to like though.  One of them being the Suwanee Town Center.  Success may still live there.

Since we're in Gwinnett...

Gwinnett's HOT Lanes One Step Closer to Construction - AccessNorthGa.com

Two words.  Not HOT.

Atlanta LINK Group Heads to Phoenix to Learn About Water, Education & Transportation - Saporta Report

I can see how this would be useful. Two areas we can learn from Phoenix are in water consumption and light rail. Let's hope our leaders bring some good ideas back to GA.

Gwinnett LEED Certified Library Ribbon Cutting - Greening Gwinnett

Kudos to Giwnnett for building a LEED certified library. In fact, just building a library is a great thing. However, I'm wondering just how green the library actually is even with it's LEED certification. The WalkScore is a 48 which is car dependent and just looking at the satellite images of the location, that is probably generous. let's work on building green communities not just green buildings.  Notable quote: "89% of construction waste associated with this project was recycled and diverted from local area landfills."

Beyond

Housing Market Strengthens for Smart Growth: Dramatic New Data from the DC Areas - NRDC Switchboard

I was thinking about doing something like this with the real estate info that came out in the May edition of Atlanta Magazine. However, after looking at the numbers, it dawned on me that Atlantans don't get it yet. Additionally, Atlantans don't have enough smart growth options. Virtually all neighborhoods are still car dependent.  If there were any similarity to the data that Kaid Benefield presents in his blog, it would be that Atlantans congregate around schools and not transit and the home values would correlate accordingly.

LEED for Neighborhood Development Formally Launches to Promote Smart, Sustainable Land Use - NRDC Switchboard

This is a huge step in the right direction for sustainability in the design of new towns and neighborhoods.  A lot of effort was put into this by the US Green Building Council, Congress for the New Urbanism, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others.  As part of the pilot program, 68 projects were certified nationwide as of March 2010.  Kaid Benefield consistently emphasizes that 50% of the buildings that we will have in 25 years have not been built yet.  That is why it is so important to get these new certifications in place.  One criticism that has been put forth is that the new system is too numbers based.

Who's to Blame for our Crumbling Roads & Bridges? Democracy, for One - The Infrastructurist

Crumbling infrastructure is a major problem. It is great to see that someone is bringing this to the forefront.  I initially found it interesting that the study blames democracy for the issues. However, this Notable Quote might clear up the headline: "Political forces often undermine a strong commitment to maintenance: Members of Congress, state legislators and local politicians thrive on ribbon-cuttings. Powerful special interests push for new and bigger highways. Meanwhile, federal and state policies – which should provide strong guidance in the wise use of taxpayer dollars – often fail to achieve the proper balance between building new infrastructure and taking care of what we already have built."

Court Battle in WA: Do 'Highway Purposes' Include Rail Lines? - The Infrastructurist

This is one that I ponder every time I drive up GA 400 between Buckhead and just south of the Glenridge Connector.  I see those MARTA tracks sandwiched between the northbound and southbound lanes and wonder why we haven't built more transit lines on the same corridors as our highways.  It only makes sense to me.  It would be pretty sweet to see the train extend all the way up 400 to Windward.  That's not gonna happen though.

Brookings Report: "Bright Flight" Transforming Cities & Suburbs - Worldchanging.com

This is a worthwhile post to peruse.  It makes you wonder where we are headed.  We can sometimes see the general direction but it is impossible to see the exact destination.  Notable quote: "The rate of poverty is rising five times faster in the suburbs than in cities."

Walkability 101-B, or why it's Good to be Connected - NRDC Switchboard

Great quick read on the dilemma that is posed by our dendritic street networks.  It makes the case that crappy street patterns and urban planning not only waste time but discourage interaction among neighbors. Notable quote: "Residents in metro Seattle areas with the most interconnected streets were found to travel 26% fewer vehicle miles than those in areas with many cul-de-sacs."

Image Courtesy of Fracker23 @ Flickr

Just How Big is the Spill?

I grew up on the gulf coast in Biloxi and Pensacola and know just how beautiful the sandy beaches and blue waters of the gulf can be. It pains me to see this oil spill destroying such a beautiful part of our country. I hope this will serve as a wake up call for many that we need to quickly work toward increasing the share of alternative forms of fuel in our transportation fleet. Additionally, I hope this will encourage less sprawl oriented development around our country. I have been skeptical of the 'official' reports of the flow rate since day one so I started looking around a little bit for other estimates. Some of them are downright scary and by all means catastrophic. I found this widget on the web and thought I'd post it. Not everyone in Roswell or Atlanta has a direct connection to the gulf but if you eat seafood, you will soon find out just how big your connection is. We sure do hope that BPs efforts tomorrow to plug this leak work.

Streets Alive: Did They Pick the Wrong Street?

 

The first ever Streets Alive event in Atlanta was held today in downtown Atlanta.  Streets were closed to automobile traffic from 1pm to 6pm today and were opened to pedestrians, cyclists, in-line skaters and performers.  The event was modeled on the Ciclovia event in Bogota, Columbia that essentially shuts down the main streets all over the city to motorized traffic every Sunday.  This type of event has gained popularity in the states and all over the world by cities looking to move away from car dependency and encourage other forms of transportation as well as other ways to enjoy the cities.

I decided to go down to see what it was all about today.  The weather was nice (just a little hot) and it turned out to be an interesting event.  The city agreed to close about a 1 mile stretch of Edgewood Avenue west of Peachtree as well as a shorter stretch of Auburn Avenue.  If I have any complaints about the event, it would be the location and the lack of understanding of the event. 

If you are familiar with that part of the city, you know that it has rapidly gentrified over the past 10 years and it has a very rich history.  However, even but it still has a little way to go in the areas of security and aesthetics.  It was interesting to see the older architecture illustrating the historic element of the area It is rich in history and there were some interesting businesses and stops along the route such at the Sweet Auburn Curbside Market.  The area overall just doesn't have a very welcoming feel to it.  The storefront below pictured below didn't make us feel welcome at all.  

While we were there, it seemed that the people, other than the cyclists, didn't really know what to do.  There were a lot of people off on the sidewalk and in the side parks but not as many were actually in the streets.  I'm sure that over time these types of events will become more popular and we will start to see people understand what they are all about.  

I really think the main problem here (if there was one) was one of location.  I think one of the main reasons for this type of event is to showcase the power of the local community and make people aware of alternative possibilities.  i.e. What else can we do with our roads?  That area of downtown does have a long standing community and a number of residential areas but it just didn't seem like the community was a big presence.  On the other hand, if the purpose of the location was to present a part of the city that was hindered by the movement of designing cities for the car rather than for people that began in the mid 20th century, they picked a good place.  You have an area that has been decimated by the freeway cutting right through it and many traffic policies that just don't work well for pedestrian life.  When I think about this event though, I wonder if putting the negative issues on display is more important than having a successful event where people feel welcome.  If you were looking to make people feel happy, I'd look at VaHi, Inman Park, Midtown (10th Street?), West Midtown or maybe even a section of Peachtree Street.

Now, how do I tie this back to Roswell?  If you have attended any of the Alive After Five events, you will know that we have our own little 'street' party here in Roswell.  It's not quite a Streets Alive but it may be getting close.  At the last event, the amount of traffic congestion on Canton Street was overwhelming.  The business owners love the traffic but I think they would benefit more from safer foot traffic.  My suggestion would be to shut down a really short stretch of Canton Street from Norcross Street south to the Atlanta Street intersection.  This wouldn't impact a significant number of commutes and it would make the entire scene safer and more fun.

Can your children or those in your neighborhood walk to school?

Judging from the non-scientific results of my morning commute behind countless yellow buses, I would guess that not too many kids in Roswell are walking to school.  Again this is a guess, but I would estimate that less than 5% of kids in Roswell are regularly walking to school.  This is unfortunate as many of our children today could be getting much needed exercise while walking to school and we could simultaneously increase air quality by having fewer cars on the roads and decreasing the congestion that is all too common around schools these days.  Additionally, walking to school is a lost form of independence in today's society.  Too many parents, for many reasons, won't even allow their children to walk to school even when the walk is reasonable.  Unfortunately, this choice isn't even available to most parents due to the way we have developed our neighborhoods and schools.  

To check just how walkable the public schools in Roswell are, I looked up the Walk Score for each of the 13 schools.  What I found wasn't surprising.  Eight of the thirteen schools are in Car-dependent locations while five are in Somewhat Walkable locations.  Now, I understand that this is not the perfect measure of whether it is easy for kids to walk to school but it does give a good indication of the density and environment surrounding the school.  Our development patterns have unfortunately favored big-box schools that are situated in areas that are not a walkable distance from a meaningful portion of the homes in the area and sited on parcels of land so large that it discourages walking.  Below is a breakdown of the Roswell schools with their Walk Score:

Elementary Schools

- Hembree Springs - 37 (Car-dependent)

- Hillside - 52 (Somewhat Walkable)

- Esther Jackson - 42 (Car-dependent)

- Mimosa - 66 (Somewhat Walkable)

- Mountain Park - 22 (Car-dependent)

- Northwood - 42 (Car-dependent)

- River Eves - 11 (Car-dependent)

- Roswell North - 37 (Car-dependent)

- Sweet Apple - 26 (Car-dependent)

Middle Schools

- Crabapple - 49 (Car-dependent)

- Elkins Point - 65 (Somewhat Walkable)

High Schools

- Centennial - 54 (Somewhat Walkable)

- Roswell - 65 (Somewhat Walkable)

Our leaders know that walking to school is a priority.  One of the three initiatives under our current Transportation Plan is the Complete Streets initiative.  Built in to the Complete Streets initiative is the Safe Routes to School program which is priority number one in that section of the Transportation Plan.  Our the focus is there but it will take time.  I did check the Georgia Safe Routes to School website and I did not see any Roswell schools listed as partners out of the 105 Georgia schools listed.  The one thing I wish our leaders were giving more consideration to is smaller more disbursed schools.  At least at the elementary and middle school levels. 

Resources

Georgia Safe Routes to School

National Center for Safe Routes to School