GDOT Engineer No-Show at Buckhead Bike Lane Meeting

Buckhead residents looking for a chance to question a Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) engineer on the proposed addition of bike lanes on Peachtree Road in south Buckhead were disappointed when he suddenly cancelled his appearance and failed to show at a community meeting last week.

Andrew Heath was scheduled to appear at approximately 6:45 p.m. at the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods’ Sept. 10 meeting at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, but nobody realized Heath wasn’t coming until it was too late, BuckheadView says.

Current GDOT plans call for re-striping most of Buckhead’s portion of Peachtree Road, from Maple Drive to Deering Road. The re-striping will allow for a center left turn and bike lane between Peachtree Battle Avenue to Deering Road, BuckheadView says.

Residents at the meeting were largely against the proposal, saying Peachtree Road was already taxed to the limit with vehicle traffic and taking away traffic lanes would shift drivers looking for short cuts into quiet neighborhoods.

Other road work in Buckhead aims to make the area friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists alike; another re-striping project as currently proposed will bring West Paces Ferry up to two lanes in each direction, add a center turn lane between Slaton Drive and Peachtree Road, convert the westbound bike lane into a shared lane, add an eastbound bike lane, and build a mid-block crossing at Whole Foods.

East Paces Ferry will likely be re-striped to the configuration it had before its most recent re-paving.

City planners believe that Pharr Road provides “a more consistent opportunity for a road striping improvements,” and current plans call for converting the thoroughfare into a three-lane road with protected bike lanes and on-street parking in some areas.

“With the recent momentum of development activity in the Village, these streets present opportunities to use the space in their right-of-way differently, making streets that are safer for bicycles and pedestrians and handle traffic more smoothly,” the city said in a statement.