After almost a decade of planning and months of construction, Decatur's ambitious Complete Streets project on West Howard Avenue is finally coming together. If you've driven this stretch between downtown Decatur and East Lake MARTA lately, you've seen the transformation from what was basically a high-speed thoroughfare into something that actually considers pedestrians and cyclists.
The roughly one-mile project includes a two-way cycle track with concrete barriers, which is a big deal for safety. We're talking about real protection for people on bikes, not just some painted lines that drivers ignore. The new sidewalks and infrastructure upgrades extend from Commerce Drive near Decatur High School all the way to the city limits at Paden Circle by East Lake MARTA station.
What makes this significant is that it creates a real connection between downtown Decatur and the MARTA station that doesn't require a car. You can actually bike safely between these two major destinations, which should be obvious but somehow isn't in most of metro Atlanta. The fact that Decatur stuck with this project through nearly ten years of planning and political back-and-forth shows they're serious about being more than just car-dependent suburbs.
