Politics & Government

Problem Intersection: Oakdale Road And McLendon Avenue

Motorists seeking to avoid Moreland Avenue's morning rush hour traffic, use Oakdale as a cut-through, turning it into a speeder's corridor.

If you like the sound of growling engines and the sight of speeding cars, you needn't travel to Germany's famed Autobahn or even the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Just come to Candler Park during rush hour and watch the intersection of Oakdale Road and McLendon Avenue.

You can watch from the parking lot of the Gilded Angel Candler Park Gallery on the northeast corner.

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We have.

So have area homeowners and business owners who've witnessed a troublesome number of accidents at that intersection, including one serious one last week. The incidents range from pedestrians and bicyclists getting hit by cars, to cars overturning, to trucks driving through business storefronts.

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Over a three-year period, a similarly sized Atlanta intersection should have 5 or six accidents, traffic engineers say.

McLendon and Oakdale — just a few blocks away from the Mary Lin Elementary campus that many children walk to — has had four times as many accidents.

It's understandable why Oakdale, a north-south road, is so popular with pass-through motorists: They're looking to avoid the morning and evening rush hour crawl that turns Moreland Avenue into a swarm of slow-moving vehicles.

Oakdale connects to several major thoroughfares including DeKalb, North and Ponce de Leon avenues, as well as North Decatur Road, allowing commuters to bypass Moreland.

It explains why the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization is looking at finding a solution to make not only that intersection safer, but also the entire stretch of Oakdale that runs through Candler Park less attractive to speeders.

The CPNO on Monday formalized a committee whose members have already met several times to tackle the issue. The ultimate goal is to formalize a plan to present to city traffic officials the neighborhood hopes will reduce the speeding.

They could hire a traffic-engineering consultant to help them develop such a plan.

At least one traffic-calming measure — speed bumps — is not in the mix because Oakdale is an emergency-vehicle designated road, committee member Joshua Harrelson told East Atlanta Patch.


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