How Safe Routes to School Helped the Bike-Ped Trail Initiative for Beaver Ruin Road

In late 2012, the from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) for implementation of a Safe Routes to School project which includes pedestrian and bike improvements along Beaver Ruin Road. The project came from a plan initiated and organized by Connie Weathers, founder of Sustainable Norcross, and Norcross citizen Arlene Beckles.

Weathers and Beckles organized a diverse team consisting of law enforcement officers, teachers and other community stakeholders to form the Summerour Middle School SRTS Task Force. The group provided input, guidance and oversight in writing a Travel Plan for students to walk and bike to school.

"The task force felt it important to undertake the study to provide a credible basis for informed decision making by local civic and transportation officials. The process allowed us to build strategic partnerships among the stakeholders," said Weathers. "This collaboration made it possible to multiply our efforts for a much more impactful project than any one of us could have achieved alone. Implementation will enhance the safety of all types of users on Beaver Ruin Road and hopefully encourage more people to walk and bike to school and around the community."

Weathers and Beckles solicited the participation of the CID and City in the study, asking them to provide staff expertise and funding assistance. Late in 2012, the two organizations applied for and received funding from ARC with a commitment of $244,000 in matching funds from the CID and Norcross. The funding will be used to implement key recommendations from the study.

"Connie and Arlene came up with the idea and motivated the CID and City to get involved; we just took their plan and sought a way to fund it,” said Chuck Warbington, executive director of the Gwinnett Village CID. "They should really be commended for their commitment to improving the safety and mobility in this community and we are more than happy to work toward seeing their plan implemented."

Improvements will provide increased mobility and access along Beaver Ruin Road with the installation of pedestrian and bicycle facilities between Buford Highway and Indian Trail-Lilburn Road (including a potential multi-use trail on the south side of the road). Other accessibility improvements include upgrades to the existing crossing at Price Place and Beaver Ruin, installation of crossing islands and a pedestrian hybrid signal. All improvements will be ADA accessible. The project is funded under the Last Mile Connectivity Program, a regional program defined in PLAN 2040 to improve pedestrian and bicyclist mobility, accessibility and safety along transit corridors, as well as within employment and commercial centers, and in the vicinity of other major origins and destinations such as schools. Project design will begin this summer.

The project will include key recommendations of the 2012 Safe Routes to School Travel Plan for Summerour Middle School, which found that more than half of the students who walk and bike to school travel along or across Beaver Ruin as part of their route. However, high traffic speeds and volumes deter many parents from allowing more children to walk along or across this road.

The Gwinnett County School System plans to add an elementary school at this location and move Summerour to the current GIVE West campus at Beaver Ruin and Price Place. Together, these two schools will house a student population of more than 2,000.

This project will connect a densely populated corridor that also includes single and multi-family residences, commercial properties, churches, Gwinnett County transit, and facilities for the Department of Labor and the Department of Family and Children’s Services. It also furthers the City of Norcross’ goal of creating a more integrated pedestrian network.

“It is great that the city, citizens, the Gwinnett Village CID and school system collaborated in a way that created the funding for this project and will make the area safer and more walkable," said Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson. "Partnerships like this will positively affect the community for decades.”

The above is a press release from the Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District.

See also:

• Gwinnett Village CID Outlines Top Projects in Bike/Ped Study

• Summerour Celebrates Walk to School Day

• Summerour Celebrates Bike to School Day

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