progress

half within 300 feet. PEDS’ Safe Routes to Transit Initiative pushed for making safe crossings at transit stops a local, regional and state priority. State and local agencies responded. Georgia DOT added Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons on Buford Highway.

Midtown Alliance partnered with the city of Atlanta to install Rapid Flash Beacons on 10th Street at the Midtown MARTA station.

By Clare S. Richie

Next time you safely walk in a crosswalk, think of the advocacy group Pedestrians Educating Drivers (PEDS). In January, PEDS and its partners will celebrate 20 years of progress making the Atlanta metro area safer and more accessible for people who walk.

PEDS, led by founding president and CEO Sally Flocks, has promoted safety improvements that helped change driving behavior.

“Crosswalks changed from two parallel lines to a more visible ladder design,” Flocks said, noting that in-street signs, median islands and high-tech beacons are other tools PEDS promoted to help people cross busy streets.

In 1995, the Georgia legislature changed the crosswalk law, requiring drivers to “stop and stay stopped” for pedestrians in crosswalks, not to just yield to them. Flocks started PEDS a year later. Flocks grew up in California during the 1960s, where drivers stopped for pedestrians and police enforced pedestrian laws. After moving to Atlanta in the 1970s, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and had to stop driving. She experienced how dangerous it was to walk to work – broken sidewalks, insufficient crosswalks, poor street design and drivers indifferent to walkers. After successful brain surgery in 1995, Flocks was eager to start a new