Decatur seeks more safety for Candler Street

This stretch of Candler Street received a pedestrian-activated beacon several months ago, one of many improvements along the heavily-traveled state road over the last few years. But a collective calling itself “Calm Candler” says it still isn’t enough. Bill Banks file photo for the AJC

This stretch of Candler Street received a pedestrian-activated beacon several months ago, one of many improvements along the heavily-traveled state road over the last few years. But a collective calling itself “Calm Candler” says it still isn’t enough. Bill Banks file photo for the AJC

The “Calm Candler” coalition recently presented a petition to Decatur city commissioners asking for more safety improvements on the 1.5-mile stretch of Candler Street between College Avenue and the southern city limits.

The petition, which originated Oct. 22 and now has 230 signatures, was driven by a series of Candler accidents in late September/early October, including fatalities in June and September.

“We’ve all seen a lot of close calls, illegal passing and very high speeds on Candler,” said Emory University professor Tonio Andrade, who served as spokesperson for the group. “[The commission] has already done a lot, but we want to see more.”

Among others the petition asks for automated enforcement of speeds and lowering the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph. It also asks for a more sophisticated “risk-based traffic study,” compared to the standard 85 percentile study that the Georgia Department of Transportation (Candler is a state-owned road) conducted earlier this year.

“The truth is, there’s not a single thing in their petition we don’t agree with,” said City Manager Peggy Merriss. “The problem, as they well know, how do you get it done with another agency? We have to work within (the Georgia Department of Transportation’s) framework.

“Having said that,” she added, “what (GDOT) has done in the last five years is encouraging (including flashing lights and nine crosswalks throughout the corridor). A lot of those things they wouldn’t have considered years ago. It’s just that things aren’t happening as fast as we’d like.”