Smyrna neighborhood traffic meeting set
Forest Hills and Hickory Hills neighborhood residents can present their concerns at a meeting set for Wednesday, Aug. 31.
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Smyrna City Council members Mike McNabb, Ward 4, and Wade Lnenicka, Ward 6, are hosting a meeting Wednesday, Aug. 31, at Brawner Hall for residents of Forest Hills and Hickory Hills to discuss traffic problems in their neighborhoods.
Members of the Forest Hills Preservation Group, a neighborhood association comprised of volunteers, raised concerns about the high volume of traffic and speeding in their neighborhood at their annual meeting in May. The group was concerned about increased traffic along the neighborhood’s main corridors: Lee Street, Dunn Street and Collier Drive.
Since the meeting, the group formed a study committee to monitor traffic flow through the neighborhood. Keith Williams, Smyrna’s city engineer, has also been monitoring the area’s traffic patterns.
Lnenicka explained that purpose of the meeting is three-fold: to get citizen input, to propose solutions and to educate residents about traffic safety.
McNabb elaborated the point at Monday’s council meeting.
“It will be an opportunity to look at recommendation from both the Forest Hills study committee to look at traffic patterns and traffic calming as well,” he said. “By that time our city engineer will have had time to summarize four weeks of traffic study data that he has been collecting to look at the actual nature of the problem out there and to educate both communities on the types of design opportunities out there to be considered for both traffic calming and speeding in the neighborhood, particularly for cars that use that neighborhood between the King Springs/South Cobb corridor and Atlanta Road.”
Although the areas of concern lie in Forest Hills, neighboring Hickory Hills residents are also impacted, Lnenicka said.
“And because the people living on those streets and traveling those streets from the Hickory Hills neighborhood further south of there have got to go somewhere to get in and out, oftentimes that’s through Forest Hills, whatever we do in Forest Hills affects them,” he said. “So we want to include them in the discussion and the education about don’t speed through somebody else’s neighborhood just because you don’t live there.”
Lnenicka added that the Aug. 31 meeting will probably be the first of many in a process to find a solution for the neighborhood.
“Mike and I are still sort of formulating,” he said. “Let’s try to see if we can arrive at some conclusions together that Mike and I can then bring to the council, hopefully with the support of the city engineer and the public safety departments and see if we can do something about it.”
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and is expected to run about 90 minutes.
Mike Woodliff
7:58 am on Saturday, August 20, 2011
I would attend the meeting but will be out of town. However, I'd like to recommend a sign restricting left turns from Lee Street onto Concord Road during peak traffic hours, specifically 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. I can't tell you how many times I've been stuck behind cars attempting to turn left at that T-intersection. Thank you.
Robin Tubbs
8:37 am on Saturday, August 20, 2011
As a resident in Forrest Hills, I would love to see something done about all the "speeders". It is very troublesome walking on our own streets some days. If we could slow these folks down, they would not use the neighborhood as a cut through.
Steve
8:38 pm on Tuesday, October 4, 2011
We need sidewalks on Lee St. I’ve said this since I was in the 6th grade at Griffin Middle school when a City Councilman came to talk at our school. It's very dangerous for people to walk with their baby carriages in the street, especially in limited sight situations such as the crest of a hill. Many cars are forced to move into the oncoming lane to go around pedestrians and, when this happens on the crest of a hill, there is a significant potential for a head-on collision. I have had this happen to me about ten times in the past ten years. The worst one was when I was riding my motorcycle and I had to ride up on the curb to avoid a head-on collision. On the other side of the hill, there was a man and a woman, walking side-by-side, pushing a baby carriage. Of course, now that the curbs are a foot tall, I would have to crash my motorcycle to avoid that same head-on collision. It's extremely irresponsible for people to walk in the road and force traffic to go around them. I grew up on Lee Street and my parents taught me to get out of the road when I hear a car coming. I've know this since I was about four years old. What is wrong with people today!
Rio
8:56 pm on Tuesday, October 4, 2011
I live in Ward 6 and my neighborhood connects to this area. It's great to see our Councilmen working with the citizens to arrive at solutions to these issues. When I was growing up in this area, traffic wasn't near the concern it is now. We have to approach these issues together and come up with viable solutions.
Randy W
9:40 am on Monday, October 24, 2011
I also live in this area and use these streets often by foot and car. My suggestion is sidewalks, sidewalks, sidewalks! The recent addition of new sidewalks in the neighborhood has helped, but more sidewalks are needed, especially on Collier to link a route to Taylor-Brawner Park.. Adding and changing 20 stop signs, and 6 choker devices in this neighborhood is crazy, neighbors will experience more pollution, brake noise, and vehicles racing from sign to sign to make up time. If these changes are approved what's to stop every neighborhood from requesting these modifications.
Improve safety by getting the pedestrians off the roads (including myself) by installing sidewalks, and by enforcing the existing speed limits.