Pedestrian and bicycle crash hotspots in metro Atlanta

State and city crash data point to the same handful of metro Atlanta corridors, Buford Highway, Tara Boulevard, Old National Highway, Metropolitan Parkway, where pedestrians and cyclists are hurt and killed year after year.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jul 21, 2026
6 min read

Georgia recorded 345 pedestrian deaths and 29 bicyclist deaths in 2022, the most recent full year of state crash data, with pedestrian deaths up 12% from the year before.1 More than half of those pedestrian crashes, 57% of them (1,573 of 2,777 statewide), happened in the 11-county Atlanta region, and pedestrians there are struck at a rate of 31.19 per 100,000 people, well above the statewide rate of 25.45.1 If you were hurt walking or biking somewhere between the Perimeter and downtown, there's a good chance the road already has a name on a state or city hazard list.

The corridors GDOT already flagged

Georgia's Department of Transportation keeps a "Focus Corridor" list built from serious-injury and fatal pedestrian crashes, and a large share of it runs through Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties.2 Some of the worst entries from GDOT's own data:

  • Tara Boulevard (US 19/GA 3), Clayton County, Flint River Road to I-75: 17 serious injuries and 8 deaths on a segment carrying up to 69,000 vehicles a day.2
  • Old National Highway (GA 279), Fulton County, Roosevelt Highway to Jonesboro Road: 12 serious injuries and 10 deaths over 5.36 miles, with marked crossings spaced more than 4,000 feet apart on average.2
  • Buford Highway (GA 13), Fulton and DeKalb counties, I-85 to Bragg Street: 9 serious injuries and 7 deaths on a 45 mph corridor where crossings sit roughly 1,478 feet apart.2
  • Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway (US 278), Fulton County, Oliver Street to Peek Road: 8 serious injuries and 1 death.2
  • Memorial Drive (GA 154), DeKalb County, Line Street to Ladonna Drive: 6 serious injuries and 4 deaths.2
  • Metropolitan Parkway and MLK Jr. Drive, both in Fulton County, each logged 3 deaths and 3 serious injuries on stretches under two and a half miles long.2

GDOT's own description of what these roads share reads like a checklist for danger: four to eight travel lanes, no raised median, a dense mix of housing and commercial strips on both sides, and marked crossings that average more than 2,000 feet apart, sometimes close to a full mile.2 Nearly all of them, 22 of 25 in GDOT's original study, double as transit routes, and a 2010 look at pedestrian crashes near Atlanta-region bus stops found close to half happened within 300 feet of a stop.2

What's changed, and what hasn't

That GDOT list runs on 2011-2015 crash data, but newer numbers point to the same roads. Propel ATL's 2024 five-county crash report, covering Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett, found overall traffic deaths fell 9.6% from 2023 to 2024 (470 to 425), while pedestrian and cyclist deaths rose 3.8% over the same stretch.3 DeKalb County had the most pedestrian and cyclist deaths of the five (40) and the most traffic deaths overall (121); Fulton had the most serious injuries among people walking and biking (152).3 Inside Atlanta city limits, the pedestrian death count went from 22 to 25.3 Fifty-nine percent of the pedestrian crashes in that report happened near a bus stop, the same pattern GDOT found near transit stops a decade earlier.23

Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton also top the state's most recent county rankings. In 2022, Fulton recorded 52 pedestrian deaths, DeKalb 45, and Clayton 23, more than any other counties in Georgia.1 Statewide, two-thirds of pedestrian deaths happened on roads posted at 45 mph or faster, and 61% of serious or fatal pedestrian crashes happened on two-way arterials with no median separating traffic.1 More than a quarter of Georgia's pedestrian crashes, and a quarter of bicyclist crashes, were hit-and-runs.1

Atlanta's High Injury Network

The City of Atlanta keeps its own version of this map. Under the Vision Zero ordinance the city council passed in April 2020 (20-O-1239), ATLDOT tracks a High Injury Network: fewer than 10% of the city's surface streets are responsible for roughly 73% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes.4 Atlanta's pedestrian fatality rate runs about three times higher than in Seattle, Minneapolis, or Boston, and speed was a factor in 54% of the city's traffic deaths in 2019.4 Between 2017 and 2021, Atlanta logged 2,387 crashes serious enough to cause a death or major injury.4

Some of the same corridors keep coming up for engineering fixes. GDOT ran formal Road Safety Audits on Moreland Avenue near Ponce de Leon Avenue in 2015, on Cleveland Avenue in 2013, and on both Metropolitan Parkway and Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway in 2017.2 ATLDOT's Cascade Road Complete Street project, a roughly 2-mile rebuild from the city limits to Willis Mill Road, adds a 10-foot shared-use path and wider bike lanes, carries a budget of about $36.6 million, and is scheduled to finish construction in November 2025.5 A separate Cleveland Avenue Safe Street project, budgeted at $2 million, adds pedestrian facilities and edge striping and is set to break ground in September 2026.6 On Ralph D. Abernathy Boulevard between Cascade Avenue and MLK Jr. Drive, ATLDOT plans to cut the road from four lanes to three, add a raised median or turn lane, and build a shared-use path connecting to the MARTA West Lake station.7

If you're hit walking or biking here

Georgia law gives pedestrians the right of way in marked and unmarked crosswalks alike: once someone is in the driver's half of the road, or approaching within one lane of it, the driver has to stop and stay stopped.8 Any driver involved in a crash that injures or kills someone also has a legal duty to stop, identify themselves, and help get the injured person medical care if it's needed.9 Hit-and-runs made up more than a quarter of Georgia's pedestrian crashes in 2022, so that second duty gets tested often on these corridors.1

If you or someone you know was hurt walking or biking on one of these roads, an attorney who handles Georgia pedestrian and bicycle cases can help sort out fault, insurance, and any open hit-and-run investigation. You can start with the legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, "Georgia Traffic Safety Facts: 2022 Data, Pedestrians and Bicyclists (Non-Motorists)," April 2024. https://www.gahighwaysafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2022-Non-Motorist-Pedestrian-and-Bicyclist-Georgia-Traffic-Safety-Facts.pdf

  2. Georgia Department of Transportation, "Georgia Pedestrian Safety Action Plan 2018-2022." https://www.dot.ga.gov/DriveSmart/Travel/BikePed/BikePedSAP.pdf

  3. Propel ATL, "Metro Atlanta Traffic Deaths Outpace Homicides, Five-County Report Maps the Human Cost of Mobility," 2024 crash data. https://www.letspropelatl.org/five_county_crash_report_2024

  4. Atlanta Department of Transportation, "Vision Zero." https://web.atlantaga.gov/vizionzero/

  5. Atlanta Department of Transportation, "Cascade Rd. Complete Street - Phase I," Capital Delivery Projects. https://atldot.atlantaga.gov/projects/cascade-rd-complete-street-ph-i/

  6. Atlanta Department of Transportation, "Cleveland Ave Safe Street," Capital Delivery Projects. https://atldot.atlantaga.gov/projects/cleveland-ave-safe-street

  7. Atlanta Department of Transportation, "RD Abernathy Blvd Complete Street," Capital Delivery Projects. https://atldot.atlantaga.gov/projects/rd-abernathy-blvd-complete-street

  8. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-91, Right of Way in Crosswalks. https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-40/chapter-6/article-5/section-40-6-91/

  9. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-270, Hit and Run; Duty of Driver to Stop at or Return to Scene of Accident. https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-40/chapter-6/article-12/40-6-270

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Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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