The Human Cost of Mobility

Although the overall number of crashes fell between 2022-2023, over the past five years the moving average of fatal and injury crashes continued to rise, even when accounting for outliers with unusually high or low numbers of people killed in crashes in any given year. (Note: a five-year moving average is a statistical technique that conveys overall trends in a data set; it is an average of any subset of numbers, often used for forecasting.)

This deadly direction continues in each county. While Clayton and Fulton Counties experienced fewer fatal crashes in 2023 compared with 2022, the five-year moving average for fatalities still shows an upward trend.

In contrast, DeKalb County had more fatal crashes in 2023 than in 2022, and, as a result, its trend shows a faster rise.

Meanwhile, the City of Atlanta experienced a year-to-year decrease, yet the 71 people killed in 2023 (down from 91 in 2022) still represented the third-highest total number of traffic fatalities in the last decade.*

 City of Atlanta and Vision Zero 

In April of 2024, the Atlanta Department of Transportation released its “ Action Plan for Vision Zero ,” a roadmap for ending traffic fatalities in our city. Propel ATL’s work on this issue dates back to 2017, when we demanded the City adopt the goal of eliminating traffic deaths through a data-driven, collaborative approach “because," as we put it at the time, "no one should die trying to get somewhere.”

Atlanta City Council passed Vision Zero legislation in March 2020 under the leadership of then-Councilmember Andre Dickens. The next step, creating an Action Plan, was delayed several years by COVID-19 and the aftermath of the pandemic. In the meantime, pedestrian fatalities rose, creating an even greater sense of urgency among residents and city officials.

The 2023 decline in fatalities in the City of Atlanta is a hopeful data point and one that should spur even greater commitment to its goal of completely eliminating traffic deaths by 2040.

There was a moment in the ambulance when Veronica Watts stopped breathing. She had just been hit, in a Midtown crosswalk, by a speeding driver who failed to stop. The impact with the driver’s windshield had thrown her 38 feet into the air and sent her skidding across the ground. She awoke in Grady Memorial Hospital, eight hours later, with a tube down her throat and many of her teeth missing. 

She would be in therapy for concussion symptoms for another four months and would receive an implanted set of teeth to replace the ones she lost. Despite all this, the police report on her crash labeled her injuries as “minor.” 

Due to misreporting by police and an insurance technicality, Veronica’s civil settlement covered just her medical bills and loss of pay. “I thought there were protections for people,” she says. “And this made me realize that there really are not.”

Since her recovery, Veronica has thrown herself into research on pedestrian safety and discovered that legislation on the topic hadn’t been updated in over a decade. She has since made it her mission to act as a liaison between victim advocates, pedestrian safety organizations, and legislators. She ultimately hopes the Georgia General Assembly establishes a study committee, ideally with some representation from traffic-violence victims, dedicated to analyzing pedestrian safety and crafting new legislation on the subject.

While Veronica’s work under the Gold Dome has brought attention to her situation, the pending criminal case will not include financial support, leaving her struggling to make ends meet. She also expresses how disheartened and frustrated she feels for people who may not have the same privilege and resources.

“So many people blame the person who got hit and not the [driver] who hit the other person,” she says. “There's a lot of victim blaming…There needs to be a step away from this individual mindset where only your life matters.”

In 2023, over 103,000 traffic crashes occurred in Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties. 1,431 of these crashes involved people walking, cycling, or rolling.

Crashes disproportionately kill people not in cars

112 of those crashes killed people walking or biking. Bicycle and pedestrian crashes represented just 1.4 percent of the 103,000 crashes in 2023, but 33 percent of fatalities.

Traffic violence has disproportionately more severe effects on people outside of a vehicle – people who do not benefit from the protection of 2+ tons of glass and steel, not to mention airbags and other safety systems – than those driving or riding in one.

Despite the year-to-year decrease in pedestrian fatalities, there is an overall rising trend across all three counties over the last ten years, fueled by significant increases in pedestrian fatalities in previous years.

The 108 pedestrian deaths in 2023 represent a decrease of 10 percent compared with 2022. Clayton and Fulton counties contributed to this reduction, seeing 38 and 37 percent fewer pedestrian fatalities, respectively. 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 percent. In contrast, pedestrian fatalities dropped by 35 percent in the City of Atlanta.

Crashes involving pedestrians are more likely to result in people being killed.

Atlanta traffic was terrible. That’s why Satya Bhan never drove but instead walked or biked wherever he went. Sometimes, he rode his electric scooter.

But on May 28, 2023, on the way home to Atlantic Station from a fun night out, a driver struck his scooter on a dark stretch of Cheshire Bridge Road, a four-lane thoroughfare lined with businesses and apartment buildings.

Satya came to, hours later, confused and in pain in the Grady Memorial Hospital ER. Quickly, he felt for his phone and snapped a selfie to understand why he couldn’t move his head. The screen revealed a bruised, swollen, and bleeding face — along with a neck brace. The crash left him with a facial fracture, a brain bleed, and a “foggy” thought process – he would have difficulty making sense of things for months afterward. 

“But at least I was able to walk away,” he says.

The police report detailing the crash is four lines long and lists the driver who hit Satya as “unknown.” It also lists no witnesses, although Satya says a number of people saw the crash and at least one called 911. He has followed up and asked about an investigation, or camera footage from surrounding businesses from that night, but each visit, phone call, and email to authorities has led only to dead ends.

Satya’s crash left him rattled, and the lack of responsiveness from the police left him frustrated. Then, similar events in his own neighborhood sparked him to take action.

During his months of recovery and physical therapy, Satya learned that his Atlantic Station neighbor, Kevin Mason, had been struck and injured by a driver on 17th Street. Then, months later, Jerry LeDoux, another neighbor, was taking his dog on a morning walk and crossing 17th when he was struck and killed by a driver.

Satya quit his job in tech to take on pedestrian safety in his neighborhood full-time. As president of the Atlantic Station Civic Association, he is working to build a coalition of HOA boards and residents to push for improved pedestrian safety on 17th Street.

“There was just a general consensus that residents do not feel safe on 17th Street. It has been designed like a raceway, and people drive down that street going way over the speed limit.” 

He and his neighbors have asked for reduced speed limits, protected bike lanes, and a road diet to slow drivers. 

“It makes no sense,” Satya says. “How in the world is the right-of-way of a car more important than a life?”

















Alexandria Miller could go on and on about why she loved Christmas: from the lights and poinsettias, to carolers and holiday movies. Alexandria rattled off this list of reasons to her mother, Kizzy Stewart, just five days before Christmas in 2023. 

That year, Alexandria spent Christmas Eve with friends, with the grown-ups putting on final touches for Santa Claus’s arrival after getting the kids to bed. Around 3 a.m. Alexandria decided to go to the store for a soft drink. It wasn’t unusual for her to be awake at that hour given her work schedule at a bakery. 

After waiting for a ride, Alexandria decided to walk instead. She never returned.

A driver fatally struck Alexandria as she walked across the last lane in a nearly ten-lane highway – GA-10, or Memorial Drive. The investigators and police report ruled it an accident, saying Alexandria was at fault because she didn’t have the crosswalk light.

Aside from questioning if the walk light was even working at the time, Kizzy still wonders why a toxicology report that included a blood alcohol level test was performed on her daughter’s body, while police didn’t administer a field sobriety test for the driver. The driver walked away without charges.

Alexandria, 20, was excited about breaking down and cleaning industrial baking machines at night. She liked the sense of responsibility and the financial independence was icing on the cake.

Alexandria’s ultimate goal was to become a doula. Alexandria had a way with babies and children, according to her mother. When she worked in the infant room at a daycare with her grandmother, Alexandria “fell in love with the fragility of life and wanted to cater to that,” said Kizzy. “She had a tender spot for kids that she didn’t necessarily have for adult humanity.” 

As the self-proclaimed “Realest Alive,” Alexandria wasn’t one for the masks adults sometimes wear. About her daughter, Kizzy said: “She wasn’t a faker. She wasn’t the type of person who could go with the status quo because that’s what’s in… She was a very independent thinker.” She had a lot of life figured out already and seemed to inherently know how to freely give from her heart, how to celebrate others, and how to be honest, just, and fair.

Her youngest child’s wisdom beyond her years isn’t the only thing Kizzy misses. Alexandria was her laughing buddy in Atlanta. Kizzy and Alexandria would sometimes chase full moons or watch planes take off and land together. Originally from Louisiana, Kizzy’s two other adult children still lived there when tragedy struck. 

After learning a great deal about how many other people had been hit by vehicles, Kizzy felt less alone and was stirred to advocate for pedestrian safety. She hopes to see sobriety tests required by law in addition to infrastructure improvements: lanes and speed limits reduced, better illumination, and adequate sidewalks. 

“[Pedestrians] need to be protected. They don’t have bumpers.” Kizzy doesn’t want Alexandria’s or any other victim’s story to be in vain: “Something definitely has to be done… If one of Alex’s purposes was for her life to bring awareness, it’s in me now.” 

“Everyone should be able to travel and do things; it doesn’t matter if it’s three in the morning or three in the afternoon.”

While the numbers change from year to year, what has not changed is the  kinds of corridors  producing the largest shares of crashes, injuries, and fatalities. From Memorial Drive (State Route 154/10) to Buford Highway (SR 13) to Flat Shoals Parkway (SR 155), these are wide, multi-lane roadways, designed for high speeds, yet running through populated areas. Most of these corridors are controlled by the state, rather than the surrounding cities or counties. 

 Strong Towns calls these “stroads, " since they are designed to function both as streets–home to businesses, residences, and wealth creation – as well as roads, which connect places at higher speeds. Unlike most other dual-purpose inventions, however, these “stroads” are dangerous and deadly, and form the greatest percentage of Georgia’s  “High-Injury Network.”  

In Atlanta, the High-Injury Network comprises just 10 percent of the streets yet accounts for 73 percent of fatal and severe injuries.

Expanding our view to the county lines, suburban areas of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton contain some of the deadliest roads, all of them adhering to the “stroad” descriptor. 

South DeKalb’s Memorial Drive (SR 154/10), Covington Highway (SR 12), and Flat Shoals Parkway (SR 155) top the list of roadway fatalities, while north DeKalb’s Clairmont Road (SR 155) and Buford Highway (SR 13) also make the list, with Moreland Avenue (SR 42) straddling the Fulton/DeKalb line. Suburban Clayton is represented by Tara Boulevard (SR 19) and Jonesboro Road (SR 54), while south suburban Fulton rounds out the list with Old National Highway (SR 279) and Camp Creek Parkway (SR 6). 

Bus stops are pedestrian traffic generators: people are drawn to them on foot in order to board, and they generate foot traffic in turn when people step off buses. Unfortunately, many MARTA stops are little more than a patch of dirt along a busy, high-speed road, lacking even a sidewalk. So it’s no wonder that most crashes in Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties occur within walking distance of a bus stop, with people walking and cycling hit at a higher rate than drivers and passengers.

45 percent of pedestrian crashes in Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb happen within 150 feet of a bus stop and 88 percent take place within a quarter mile, or walking distance. 

People have to cross the street at least once to get to or from their bus stop. Bus stops are often located on major roadways, where long distances between marked crosswalks, few signalized crossings, and multi-lane roadways make it dangerous to simply cross the street to catch a bus.

What’s more, infrequent bus service makes walking a half mile out of the way to cross the street likely to result in missing the bus – and losing out on work and other opportunities.

Born and raised in East Atlanta, Géoving Gérard, II has biked almost all of the area within I-285 and gained a unique view of people as he documented new connections through photography. “I think the beauty of biking, walking, and other pedestrian-oriented ways of transportation is that I see you as a person,” Geo says.

However, a ride that Geo started for exercise quickly turned into a harrowing experience.

In broad daylight, a driver making an unprotected left turn struck Geo, causing him to go flying and break his fibula.

Geo saw the person speed off. While multiple people witnessed the hit-and-run, only one stopped to help.

“I felt invisible,” Geo recounts of the traumatic afternoon that left him unable to walk for two months. “There weren't any cameras; there wasn't any documentation.”

The intersection where Geo was hit, Old Jonesboro Road and Metropolitan Parkway, seemed inherently dangerous to him, and he offered some suggestions to Atlanta City Council about how to make it safer. “That needs to be either a three-way stop, [or] put a light there… And I think [in response] there was a lot of, like, well, that's a state-owned road. I don't know what we can do .”

The response to Geo’s concerns hits a genuine issue for those concerned about safer streets. Metropolitan Parkway, like many high-injury corridors within metro Atlanta, is officially SR 19, a state highway. This can make change more difficult than if it were a city-controlled street.

“I think that's where a lot of people become disinterested in government and [pushing] for change,” Geo observes. “Because if change doesn't happen quick enough, you choose to move on with other parts of your life that you might have more direct control over.”

Throughout all that Geo has experienced, he still sees an opportunity to weave alternative modes of transportation into the fabric of Atlanta. “Anything that brings people together more—such as biking, walking, or running— creates a higher likelihood of creating community,” he says.

Echoing past patterns, people living in areas with lower household incomes experience an increased risk of being injured or killed in a crash. This inequality is even more pronounced for pedestrians. Research by multiple parties demonstrates that the streets responsible for the highest number of casualties – the  “High-Injury Network”  – are unequally distributed in lower-income areas. 

In the City of Atlanta, roughly two-thirds of the High-Injury Network streets are located west of Northside Drive or south of I-­20. Similar patterns persist beyond city limits, and the preponderance of lower-income crash victims – often the same people walking to or from substandard bus stops – are the tragic fruit of these inequitable patterns.

In the three-county area, Census tracts whose population is predominantly Black or African American make up 54 percent of all tracts but account for 73 percent of all traffic fatalities.

In  2018 a researcher found  that neighborhoods with more miles of the High­-Injury Network had lower median incomes, a larger share of Black residents, higher rates of walking, biking, and taking transit to work, and lower rates of vehicle ownership. The concentration of dangerous roadways in these communities is no coincidence. For example, redlining created an unequally distributed sidewalk network in metro Atlanta and most U.S. cities.

These trends highlight a glaring and ongoing disparity in metro Atlanta's pedestrian safety: People walking in neighborhoods with a majority Black population or in low-income communities are more likely to lose their lives to traffic violence.