In a year with a wide open mayoral race and an increase in crime not seen in some time, life in Atlanta goes on. There are other city departments besides the police after all. The Department of City Planning this week announced that it was launching a demonstration project for its “Peachtree Shared Space Study.”
Starting downtown, in the most convention heavy and naturally walkable areas, Phase 1 of the project will take place between Baker and Ellis Streets. The focus of the project is testing ways to encourage walking, biking and transit as the primary modes of transportation. Cars will of course still be allowed through but at slower speeds, and probably in tighter lanes.
“The demonstration project will allow us to give space back to people, rather than focus solely on vehicles, and fulfill a need for more public spaces in our city,” said Commissioner of City Planning Tim Keane. “As we experience a new wave of growth, we need Peachtree Street, and all of our public spaces, to be recreated as exceptionally designed places for all people every day.”
The study was born out of a design concept from the “Atlanta City Studio” in 2018. There was a general consensus around the desire to return Peachtree to its roots as the center of life and activity in the city. It had largely become a thoroughfare, mostly helping people avoid other traffic from downtown all the way up to Buckhead. The Peachtree that was home to the theater district and cultural center for the region was long gone. The popularity of the Streets Alive program – where certain blocks are closed off to cars completely and residents or visitors stroll and bike and skate in the road – was part of the impetus to push for more non-car access.
Utilizing paint striping, planters and wheel stops, all of the temporary variety, will allow the city to test and hone what is working, what is safe and what can best serve residents without being overly intrusive. As Atlanta continues to shoot for the “global city” mantle that it claimed in the Olympics era of the 1990’s, it is looking to cities like London or Seattle or Amsterdam that have done similar shared space design projects.
“This is just the beginning of a cultural shift of how we use public space in the city. We want to test it to make tweaks along the way, so we can create a space that embodies the culture of our city and a beautiful experience for all of the users of this space,” said Monique Forte, the Department of City Planning’s project manager for this study.
To learn more about the project (or see how it might impact your trip downtown), see here: https://www.sharepeachtree.com/demo
