After recently forming two committees to focus on different areas, members of the Ellijay Downtown Development Authority’s safety committee talked about ideas for improving parking and pedestrian safety in downtown Ellijay while meeting at City Hall last Tuesday.
The pedestrian safety talk continues a discussion started at February’s Ellijay City Council meeting, where councilman Tom Crawford expressed the need for having a comprehensive traffic study done to find out how the city can improve pedestrian safety downtown.
Crawford asked that several groups, including the local DDA and Eliijay Police Department, be part of that discussion.
“We need input from everybody,” he said.
At the DDA meeting, safety committee member Melinda Hadden said she recently found out that the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission (NWGRC) is putting together a program with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to study traffic patterns in cities.
“A man will come speak to your group, (and there’s) another person who will do pedestrian and bike traffic patterns. We would put the group together,” she said.
The Rome-based NWGRC is administering the Bicycle and Pedestrian Cost-Share Program via a contract with GDOT. According to a NWGRC release, the purpose of the program is to help local governments and city planning groups develop goals and strategies to expand bicycle and pedestrian facilities, thus improving safety. Devising a pedestrian safety action plan is something that can be accomplished through the program’s affiliation with GDOT.
Safety committee member Sandy Ott said she will reach out to Ellijay Mayor Al Hoyle and Police Chief Ed Lacey about the safety program.
“A study is going to take some time, but this is something that can be done (sooner). That gives some good options for a plan,” she added.
Kent Sanford, representing the Greater Gilmer Joint Development Authority, noted another thing a traffic study or plan could help with is identifying where to put a loading zone for trucks that deliver to downtown businesses.
Installing a lighted crosswalk, or HAWK (High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk), system was another idea discussed by Sanford and DDA members.
“A HAWK system could help slow them down before they get all the way up through there if you put it (far enough) down River Street,” Sanford said.
When using a HAWK, a pedestrian who wants to cross the street hits a button to trigger flashing lights. There’s also an option for a walk/don’t walk signal, Sanford noted.
“That pedestrian has the right of way. By law, you have to stop when those lights are flashing. They have them in Athens on Lumpkin Street where everybody used to cross en masse,” he added.
Speed bumps may be an alternative to consider if financing can’t be secured for a lighted crosswalk, noted DDA Chairman Reece Sanford.
Ideas to improve awareness of downtown parking options and concentrate parking on the outskirts of the central downtown area were also discussed.
Sanford said none of downtown Ellijay’s parking lots are currently identified on Google Maps, the popular online tool visitors often use to find parking spots.
“When you look at Blue Ridge, it’s got all the parking identified on Google Maps. When you pull up Ellijay, none of it is marked. The (Gilmer) Chamber is trying to pin parking on Google Maps so when visitors come and they search for parking (on their phones), it will be identified,” he said.
Installing additional signs to point drivers toward the Dalton State/courthouse parking lot was also discussed. The biggest of downtown’s limited parking areas, visitors may not know about the lot till they’ve already parked somewhere else, committee members mulled.
“You could redirect (traffic) with those signs. We all know where the little shortcuts are, but people (just) coming into town are going to follow the signs,” said Hadden.
The DDA members talked about reaching out to the county commissioners to see if some of the parking spaces in the Spring Street lot used by courthouse employees and the Tabor House Museum could be utilized for public parking, possibly on weekends.
“We talked at the last DDA meeting about the Disney World model, where people park outside the grid and walk in. If you could do something to get the cars out of the grid and behind downtown, I think you’d gain a lot,” Reece Sanford said.
Public facilities committee meets
The DDA’s public facilities committee, which also met Tuesday, is currently looking at ways to improve the downtown public rest room facilities that can be accessed via the city parking lot on River Street.
Installing a privacy fence behind the rest rooms and nearby structures to replace an existing chain-link fence, as well as possibly installing decorative planters, are among the ideas being discussed.