‘Unacceptable’ fatalities prompt Macon-Bibb to take new steps toward pedestrian safety

Michael Ryan walks just about everywhere.

Over the summer, he trekked 1,100 miles through Germany, Switzerland and France and didn’t have a single close encounter with a vehicle.

Friday, as he walked to the Macon-Bibb County Government Center, it was much more dangerous.

“As I walked from the Mercer campus, where I live, down here, I had two close encounters on the way down here and that’s only a 25-minute walk,” said Ryan, who is the chairman of the Pedestrian Safety Review Board.

At a news conference to share details of the Cross the Walk safety campaign, Ryan urged the Georgia Department of Transportation to join the county’s efforts to make roads safer for those who walk, run and bicycle.

Mayor Robert Reichert, who used to walk or bike to school as a boy in Macon, said the county is working to make the community healthier by getting more people out of their cars.

“I don’t know kinda what’s changed other than cars go faster, streets are wider and parents are more protective perhaps,” Reichert said as he called for safer routes to school.

Roger Hayes of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety noted that of the 1,527 highway deaths in the state in 2016, 259 were pedestrians or people on a bicycle.

“That is just an unacceptable number for all of us,” Hayes told those gathered in the commission chambers.

Over recent years, a quarter to a third of Bibb County’s traffic fatalities have been pedestrians or cyclists, said Brad Belo, review board member.

“That is nearly double the state and national averages and is one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in Georgia,” Belo said.

As part of the mission of the review board, the Cross the Walk safety campaign has been visiting schools, senior citizen apartments in high-traffic areas, compiling public service announcements and buying signs for local businesses, such as convenience stores and liquor stores, that draw a lot of foot traffic.

Commissioner Elaine Lucas noted that funding for enhancing pedestrian safety also is included in the upcoming SPLOST passed by voters in November.

“So this community is all in on pedestrian safety,” said Lucas, who originally proposed the review board after a spike in fatalities.

Kindergarten students from M.A. Evans Academy in the Unionville neighborhood joined Lucas to stroll through a pretend crosswalk as a hip-hop public service announcement by Lucas’ son Lenny played in the background.

“You gotta cross the walk, cross the walk,” the music played as the youngsters shuffled through the white lines taped on the carpet.

Violet Poe, a review board member who created the campaign, said costumed mascots will be part of the education effort to teach students and adults how to get around on local streets safely.

Poe is encouraged by the response she’s gotten from community members interested in helping spread the word.

The volunteer efforts give her hope that lives will be saved.

The kindergartners did their part by singing a jingle written by a teacher.

“Cross and walk at the crosswalk,” they sang in their school uniforms. “Look left, look right and obey the light.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 2:10 PM with the headline "‘Unacceptable’ fatalities prompt Macon-Bibb to take new steps toward pedestrian safety."