DHCA position statement regarding the Sept 2020 GDOT public meetings for Road Safety on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
The Druid Hills Civic Association (DHCA) strongly supports efforts to slow traffic and improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and automobiles along Ponce de Leon Avenue through Druid Hills. We support engineering solutions which work toward these goals while adhering to the CAUTION settlement of 1992. Similarly, the DHCA supports the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance (OLPA) and its positions on engineering solutions and their impacts on the linear parks.
Specifically, the DHCA supports the proposed road narrowing and addition of a pedestrian island at the east intersection of N. Ponce and Ponce to improve pedestrian safety and access to Deep Dene park.
The DHCA does not support the removal of the traffic signal and pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Artwood and Ponce. This pedestrian crossing is a key component of a safe pedestrian route to Fernbank Elementary School.
The DHCA acknowledges and supports the residents of Ponce de Leon Manor and their concerns that the potential removal of the traffic signal at that intersection may significantly negatively impact safe ingress/egress to and from Ponce Manor which is a cul de sac.
The DHCA supports an engineering solution at the intersection of Ponce and Scott Blvd. Specifically, replacement of this intersection with a roundabout has the potential to lower speeds at the eastern entryway to Druid Hills and to communicate to drivers they are entering a neighborhood roadway which abuts six parks and three primary schools over the following two miles.
Given that Ponce de Leon Avenue is both a state highway and a residential street within the historic Druid Hills neighborhood and adjacent to a historic linear park system, the DHCA encourages GDOT to consider and investigate additional solutions including:
• A road diet to three lanes with accommodation for bicycle lanes and improved sidewalks.
• Intersection signaling customized to allow for improved safety for left turns and for extended pedestrian crossings at different times of the day and on weekends.
