County shows off safer pedestrian crossings

DeKalb County officials showed off the county’s safer pedestrian crossing on Candler Road April 17 and promised to install more.

The pedestrian crossing, one of several in DeKalb County, features a button that a pedestrian can press to stop traffic. The high-intensity activated crosswalk beacon, called a HAWK, provides safer “pedestrian crossing by alerting vehicles when pedestrians are entering the street,” said DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis.

The “Stop. Look. Walk.” event was part of the county’s observance of National County Government Month and its theme, Smart Justice: Creating Safer Communities.

“DeKalb County is committed to safeguarding its greatest and most precious asset and that’s the people that make this county great,” Ellis said. “Through the use of technology and in collaboration with key stakeholders we are identifying innovative ways to reduce pedestrian accidents.”

The HAWK beacons are “safer for our children, our seniors, the physically challenged, as well as all pedestrians. Why? Because lives matter,” Ellis said.

“Too many times we open the newspaper or watch on television about a person or family being injured or worse just for trying to cross the street,” Ellis said. “Your life should not be at risk just for trying to cross the street. That is unacceptable.”

Peggy Allen, deputy director of traffic engineering, said the beacons cost $75,000-$100,000 per crossing. Currently the county has four HAWK beacons on Candler Road and four on Buford Highway. More HAWKS are either under construction or planned.

A HAWK signal will be installed approximately one mile away from where the current signal is located on Candler Road, said Commissioner Stan Watson.

“Last year, a young person was killed crossing the street [there],” Watson said. “We have to be safe here in DeKalb County.”

According to Michael Lobdell, Georgia Department of Transportation assistant metro engineer/district traffic engineer, “Pedestrian crashes account for about 13 percent of highway-related fatalities and about 70 percent of those come from people just trying to cross the street.”

HAWKs “are shown to reduce overall pedestrian crashes by almost 70 percent,” Lobdell said. “So that can save a lot of lives.

Commissioner Larry Johnson said the pedestrian safety movement in Georgia started in south DeKalb.

“We started with a pedestrian safety coalition back in 1994 and through this movement we were able to establish Pedestrian Safety Week for the whole state of Georgia, which is the third week of October,” Johnson said.

“In 1995, we came back and wanted to make sure pedestrians had the right of way in crosswalks,” Johnson said. “They told us that it could not be done. But with the efforts of the citizens and the state representatives…we were able to establish pedestrian safety rights in the state of Georgia for the first time.

“This HAWK system is part of making pedestrian safety rights a priority,” Johnson said.

Getting the first HAWK system in 2010 was “a lot of hard work,” said Commissioner Kathie Gannon. “At first there was a little resistance from some folks.”

Gannon said the enhanced pedestrian crossings address “a health safety issue.”

There is “an epidemic of accidents” involving pedestrians, Gannon said. “This is really, really important to make our community more walkable.”