Sandy Springs unveils Safe Streets action plan with goal of zero fatalities by 2050; short‑term projects prioritized

City transportation staff and consultant Gresham Smith presented a draft Safe Streets and Roads for All safety action plan to the Sandy Springs City Council on March 18, outlining a prioritized program of infrastructure countermeasures and recommending a city goal to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on city‑owned streets to zero by 2050.

Kristen Wescott, who led the city’s Safe Streets work, told the council the plan pairs communications, enforcement and education strategies with physical countermeasures targeted to locations with the highest rates of serious crashes. “Addressing places that lead to serious injury or death on our roads… is going to take a lot of different ways,” Wescott said, and staff coordinated the plan with police, fire, communications, community development and GIS staff.

Nathan Gomez, project manager for Gresham Smith, described the plan’s data‑driven process: staff assembled crash and traffic‑volume data, identified a high‑injury network, and prioritized locations by crash frequency, crash rate, traffic volume and societal cost. The resulting constrained work program lists 21 infrastructure projects: five short‑term projects (deliverable in 1–5 years), five mid‑term projects (5–15 years) and 11 long‑term projects beyond 15 years. Short‑term recommendations include corridor and intersection countermeasures on Roswell Road, Dunwoody Place and Glenridge Connector; the plan also identifies projects that were already programmed in previous local studies.

The plan recommends two targets: (1) adopt a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 on city‑owned streets, and (2) work with the Georgia Department of Transportation to set an annual 5% reduction target for state routes within the city. Gomez told the council the short‑term program is financially constrained and that the final draft is posted for public comment.

Staff said the draft plan has been uploaded to the project website for public review and will remain available for comment through a public comment window that staff described as running “from the twentieth towards April 15.” Wescott and Gomez said staff plan to return to council with the final draft for adoption at an upcoming meeting (staff indicated the next council meeting in April as the planned adoption date).

Councilmembers asked about measuring outcomes and funding. Councilmember Michael Batten asked staff to analyze the performance of previously completed projects (for example, Glenridge at Roswell Road) and to present before/after crash and volume data; staff said that task is feasible but requires normalization for traffic volumes to compare crash rates. Councilmember John Paulson asked about funding sources; staff listed options including the city capital program, the city’s SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax), federal discretionary grants (via the Atlanta Regional Commission), and other federal programs such as BUILD/RAISE. Staff said participation in the Safe Streets program can help position projects for federal infrastructure funding.

Public comment included remarks from resident Bill Griffith, who urged faster action on problem corridors such as Roberts Drive and questioned the 2050 timeline. “25 years to achieve 0 serious injury crashes on city‑owned streets — that’s not good. Make that a goal by next year,” Griffith said in public comment, citing numerous single‑vehicle crashes on a residential stretch of Roberts Drive.

Next steps: staff said the draft plan will remain available for public comment and that the plan will return to council in April for consideration of adoption and incorporation into the city’s short‑term programming and transportation planning updates.