Atlanta’s Streets Alive said farewell to Peachtree Street for the rest of 2024, ending a summer series of open streets on Aug. 18.
Atlanta Streets Alive ended its summer series on Peachtree Street on a breezy Sunday on Aug. 18, the last open streets event in the area before kicking off a route from the West End to Grant Park. Crowds turned out to bike, walk and roll down the lengthy stretch while listening to live music and buying drinks from vendors. The afternoon was cut short by scattered thunderstorms, but the event will be back again for its fall installation.
Starting Sept. 15, a 3.5 mile path spanning Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard and Georgia Avenue will be the new site of “open streets” one Sunday a month. The route will also be open Oct. 20 and Nov. 17.
Event organizers said the Grant Park to West End path was picked due to the “rich historical and cultural significance of the area and the diverse mix of residents, businesses and universities” along the event path.
Streets Alive, which started in 2010, is part of an ongoing partnership between the Atlanta Department of Transportation and Propel ATL, a bike and pedestrian advocacy coalition. On Aug. 18, city officials, including Mayor Andre Dickens, took the mic to promote the open streets as part of the city’s “Vision Zero,” a campaign to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries across the country.
“We have a vision of having zero accidents and incidents of injury related to pedestrians, to cyclists,” Dickens said. “The goal is to get there by 2040, but we want to get there faster than that, right?”
Dickens said his administration has prioritized efforts like adding lights to city streets, improving pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure and better signalization to cross roads. The commitments make Atlanta an official “Vision Zero Community” in line with the national nonprofit’s goal.
Atlanta Department of Transportation Commissioner Solomon Caviness said the city’s fatalities have declined in recent years and credits much of the improvement to the ongoing investment in pedestrians and cyclists. Vision Zero documented 37 vehicle-related fatalities in 2024, a 33 percent drop from 101 fatalities in 2021.
According to city officials, the shift is part of Atlanta’s growing micro-mobility popularity.
“Atlanta is a cycling city; it is a micro-mobility city,” Caviness said.
Popular electric bike and scooter rental service Bird ranks Atlanta in the top five per capita of U.S. ridership, with 2.1 million trips in 2023. The city also recently launched its second round of e-bike rebates on Aug. 24, a lottery program aimed at getting electric bicycles into the hands of Atlanta residents at discounted rates. The Atlanta Regional Commission said 9,000 residents signed up for the program, which will distribute $500,000 in rebates throughout the year in multiple lottery rounds.
Caviness said partnerships with companies like Bird and Lime and city-sponsored rebates help to expand vehicle access in the city while investing in infrastructure supports the movement.
One new infrastructure development is the protected bike lanes constructed on Memorial Drive, which Caviness points to as a cyclist-focused shift for a popular road. But it’s not all smooth sailing — weeks ago, Georgia State House Representative Devan Seabaugh drove into a bike lane and hit a cyclist on Memorial Drive. The commissioner said it’s all part of a “culture shift” towards safety and multiple modes of mobility. That shift is made possible through popular events like Streets Alive.
“This is not something that is new, but thanks to the city of Atlanta, the mayor, Atlanta City Council and Atlanta DOT, we have decided to make it a fabric of who we are as a city,” Propel ATL Program Director Sagirah Jones said.
These things are all performative. What we need is for Peachtree to become more of a promenade, and through traffic directed to the one-way streets on either side of it. I think the move to RDA may be a mistake, because that street is mostly cement, it lacks shade, and it’s often very dangerous. I have ridden it many times this year and much prefer Whitehall for getting across town.
Making our City Streets more safe by lowering speeds and adding access for bikes, scoters and other vehicles (many new types of vehicles are on the way!), is a fabulous move forward.
Making City Streets safer by slowing speeds and adding access for bikes, scooters, and other vehicles (many new types of vehicles are coming) is an excellent efforts.
No more fucking e scooters