DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Propel ATL, a sustainable transportation advocacy organization in the metro Atlanta area, says hundreds of people die each year in the region due to crashes, safety issues and other traffic-related risks.
For the organization’s latest safety report on the metro area, which covers crashes through 2023, Propel ATL said “2023 was the worst year for fatalities” in the past decade for DeKalb County.
The report, released Wednesday along with an accompanying interactive site, focuses on the City of Atlanta as well as Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties.
According to Propel ATL, those three counties are the “core” of the metro and are all served by MARTA. In 2023, those three counties saw almost 350 people lose their lives to what the organization calls “traffic violence,” with the numbers in DeKalb County being “particularly shocking.”
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“Despite fewer crashes overall, 2023 was the worst year for fatalities in that county in the last decade, with a stark 25% more people killed in traffic violence in 2023 vs. 2022. Pedestrians made up the largest portion of this, with 40% more people killed while walking after being hit by drivers,” according to their analysis.
Additionally, across Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties, Propel ATL said traffic crashes kill as many people as homicides. Of those incidents, Propel ATL said more than 80% of crashes happened within walking distance of a bus stop.
Rebecca Serna, Propel ATL Executive Director, says that simple changes to roadways could make a big impact on fatal or harmful crashes.
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“Each death and injury is a result of a compounded series of decisions; to build dangerous, high-speed roadways that are hostile to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, to refuse to match walkability with transit use and density, and to build inequitably, with the region’s most dangerous corridors traversing the poorest census tracts,” Serna said, adding that there’s not really such thing as an accident when it comes to traffic injuries and fatalities. “Simple changes in design could virtually eliminate the vast majority of traffic crashes that result in injury and death.”
She also said that none of the changes, like adding signals, clearly marking crosswalks and making lanes thinner would be difficult or complicated, “they only require political will to execute.”
Here are the numbers from their data study:
- In 2023, 344 people died on roadways in counties with MARTA transit service: Clayton, Fulton, and DeKalb. That’s a 3.1% decrease from the 355 people killed in 2022
- In 2023, more than 103,137 crashes occurred in Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties
- 1,431 of these crashes involved people walking, biking, and rolling
- 108 of these crashes resulted in pedestrian deaths
- The 108 pedestrian deaths in 2023 represent a decrease of 10% compared with 2022
- However, pedestrian fatalities increased dramatically in DeKalb County, jumping from 42 people killed by drivers while walking in 2022 to 59 in 2023 – an increase of 40%
- In contrast, pedestrian fatalities dropped by 35% in the City of Atlanta
- In the City of Atlanta, 71 people were killed in traffic crashes (all modes) in 2023, down from 91 in 2022, which still represents the third-highest total number of traffic fatalities in the last decade
- In the three-county area, Census tracts with predominantly Blank or African American population make up 54 percent of all tracts but account for 73 percent of all traffic fatalities
- Between 2013 and 2023, Atlanta averaged 14.6 traffic deaths (pedestrians and non-pedestrians) per 100,000 people. By comparison, the more heavily populated Chicago and Seattle experienced just 5.4 and 3.7 respectively
- Just 10% of Atlanta’s streets account for 50% of its pedestrian crash fatalities and 60% of its pedestrian and bicycle crashes
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