During yesterday’s work session, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission heard from traffic safety experts about a new plan to reduce serious and fatal car crashes.
Athens-Clarke County government officials presented the Local Road Safety Plan at Tuesday night’s meeting. Daniel Sizemore is the city’s Bike, Pedestrian, and Safety Coordinator. He discussed crash data on both state and locally-operated roads.
“Between January 1st, 2013 and December 31st, 2022, there were 52,032 crashes in Athens Clarke County, with 61% of those on our locally maintained roads,” he explained.
The mayor and commission have the authority to make locally-owned roads safer. According to Sizemore, data on local roads suggests that Athens has a higher rate of certain types of crashes than other Georgia municipalities.
“Over that same 10-year period, there were 19,700 crashes at or near intersections. So that’s 61.6% of crashes on our roads. We had a much higher rate of intersection-related crashes than other municipalities in Georgia,” Sizemore said.
The Local Road Safety Plan proposed several goals, including the elimination of crash fatalities by 2032. Some Commissioners, however, suggested the plan did not go far enough to address a major issue--speeding. Commissioner Melissa Link of the 2nd District.
“I’m interested in having a more thorough discussion about speeding as well, because all of these things, distracted driving, impaired driving, pedestrian and cyclist safety, they’re exacerbated by speeding,” she said.
According to Sizemore, merely changing speed limits is not enough to prevent crashes.
The Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission are expected to vote on the Local Road Safety Plan in March.
