Last year, Macon-Bibb County reported 15 pedestrian deaths, including a bicyclist, solidifying Macon as one of the most dangerous cities in Georgia for walkers and bikers, where the rate of pedestrian fatalities is five times the national average according to Macon’s congressional delegation.
The issue of preventing pedestrian deaths in Macon is difficult. It’s rooted in a historic road system, according to Macon-Bibb County Traffic Engineer Nigel Floyd. Floyd says many of Macon’s roads were built with the large vehicles of the 1800s in mind, a system that favors moving vehicles rather than other modes of transportation.
“The infrastructure now is built for then and not now. What we’re trying to do now is update it to accommodate all modes of transportation to include pedestrians, cyclists, and other modes other than just cars,” He says.
Those accommodations are vital in an area like Macon, where many people are less likely to own a car.
“Around Macon there’s a lot of impoverished areas where people don’t have the capability of transportation in terms of cars, but they have to walk to where they go. They have to walk to work, they have to cycle to work, they have to catch the bus and things like that,” Floyd says, noting that these areas experience more accidents.
Weston Stroud, Macon-Bibb County’s Traffic Safety Manager, says another factor is the number of highways that go through Macon, increasing the likelihood that incidents will happen.
“When you have so many different state routes that come through here, it kind of limits what local authorities can control,” says Stroud says. “Most incidents are on streets that are not owned by the county, so it’s a longer process to find funding and create the change that we know we need to have.”
One of Macon’s most dangerous roads, Gray Highway, is a state highway that saw 15 pedestrian fatalities last year.
There are small but impactful measures in infrastructure that both Stroud and Floyd agree are necessary and helpful for pedestrians and bikers. An increased number of crosswalks, sidewalks, and bike lanes all give pedestrians and bikers more designated spaces to move, and multi-use pathways allow both to travel on the same side of the road.
Both Stroud and Floyd have also worked with the Macon-Bibb Pedestrian Safety Review Board, Bike Walk Macon, Macon Transit Authority, and other community organizations to initiate a joint effort between the city government and organizations to solve the issue. It is this kind of collaboration that Stroud believes is necessary to show that there is a unified support and plan from advocates of all modes of transportation to ensure Macon is according to everyone.
“It’s just great to have a collaborative effort with all these entities, where we’re all trying to reach the same goal and can put all of our efforts together to reach that goal,” Floyd says.
It is the collaboration that has led to initiatives such as Vision Zero, which is a comprehensive plan to eliminate pedestrian deaths by 2040. Stroud says that Vision Zero addresses several systematic issues in Macon’s roads and finds a way to address “how can you improve when incidents happen, and how to prevent incidents from happening”.
Floyd and Stroud believe that just as they are making efforts to make Macon more accessible to all modes of transportation, citizens have the same power to make changes.
“Just the same way local government needs to collaborate, I think everyday citizens can collaborate with their community,” Stroud says. “When you start to see a problem happen, when you communicate with each other and neighborhood organizations come to the government, have a plan for what they want and funding with it, it makes it easier for us to make something happen because it’s a community support behind it”.
