Last week we joined partner organizations in calling on the City of Atlanta to remove police enforcement as a traffic safety tool and focus on alternatives to policing. We did this because traffic stops by armed police make our streets less safe for Black communities. The racial disparity in police violence is staggering. Black people in the U.S. are three times more likely than whites to be killed by law enforcement. We stand with organizations demanding long-overdue changes to policing on our streets, some of which begin to address institutional racism in our transportation systems.

Some are asking: “aren’t you concerned people won’t obey traffic laws without police enforcement?” But Atlanta’s traffic death rates are three times higher than in Vision Zero peer cities like Seattle and Boston. We know from experience the current system of over-relying on police enforcement is not an effective way to achieve traffic safety. It's time to find alternatives to policing that make streets safe for ALL. Vision Zero's success internationally was built on one simple concept: people make mistakes, so to prevent them from being fatal we should build safer roads that protect people when mistakes happen. This is a proven approach - in Sweden fatalities were halved even as overall traffic increased. The City of Atlanta officially adopted Vision Zero in April 2020. Because the program is just getting started, we have the opportunity to prioritize racial justice. 

Essential Transportation & City of Atlanta budget

We campaigned for Essential Transportation to be prioritized in the City of Atlanta’s budget and for the Department of Transportation to be fully funded to implement long-awaited infrastructure projects. (As we followed the budget process, it was inspiring to hear the thousands of public comments in support of the "Community Over Cages" campaign.) FY2021 will be the first full year of the still-new ATL DOT, and while we’re waiting to see the full approved budget, it appears funding for the ATL DOT increased from $44M in the original proposal to $48M. 

What's next? We'll keep holding the City accountable to build funded and planned projects and are excited for the City's new tactical urbanism permit coming soon! 

Community Advocates Network (CAN)

Stakeholder Briefing August 20th