Atlanta’s Pleasantdale Road Voted the Least Crossable Street in America

Streetsblog readers have spoken, choosing Atlanta’s Pleasantdale Road as the “least crossable street in America,” which beat tough competition from Phoenix, Kansas City, and other cities.

To legally walk from the bus stop at Pleasant Shade Drive to the apartment complex across the street using the nearest crosswalk would require a three-quarter-mile trip.

Jacob Mason, the reader who submitted this entry, said at some points Pleasantdale Road is even worse: The detour to use a legal pedestrian crossing can stretch to as long as 1.7 miles.

Mason also notes that Pleasantdale Road is five lanes wide, with a speed limit of 45 miles per hour, but it’s surrounded by apartment buildings. Nearby residents are faced with a horrible choice: walk a mile out of your way to a crosswalk, or take your life in your hands and make a dash for it.

The area is reminiscent of where Raquel Nelson‘s 4-year-old son was struck and killed by an intoxicated driver in nearby Cobb County. Nelson was tried and convicted of vehicular homicide, in a case that rested on the fact that she and her children were “jaywalking” instead of walking a third of a mile down the road to the nearest crosswalk. Mason says Pleasantdale Road reflects how that kind of injustice is built in to the environment of the Atlanta region.

Coming in close behind Pleasantdale Road in the competition were West Indian School Road in Phoenix and Middlesex Turnpike in Burlington, Massachusetts. Thanks to everyone who submitted entries and voted. Hopefully, this will help provide the impetus for some positive change.