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Dear Decaturish,

I am writing as a concerned resident living on Shadowmoor Drive in the City of Decatur.

This morning, my wife and daughter were nearly hit by a speeding and reckless driver that came down our street as they were walking to Talley Street Upper Elementary.  My wife literally had to snatch my daughter to the side of the road as the car approached.  When my wife shouted at the driver to slow down, the driver slammed on her brakes and responded with threats, insults, and profanity, including racist sentiment, that continued well up the street and were overheard and witnessed by other parents and children.  My wife was so shaken by the incident that she returned home, and I subsequently drove my daughter to school, dropping her on my way to work.

The driver, likely, was among the growing number of frustrated commuters who have started using our neighborhood streets as work-arounds and cut-throughs in response to the congestion at the Talley-Columbia-Shadowmoor intersection.  City planners desperately need to develop and implement a comprehensive traffic plan that encompasses not only the Talley-Columbia-Shadowmoor intersection, but also all surrounding residential streets.  I understand that proposed traffic signalization will improve the intersection,  but something needs to be done to address and diminish the cut-through traffic along Shadowmoor and adjacent streets.  Like most Decatur streets, Shadowmoor is narrow, residents typically park their vehicles on both sides of the road, and there are no sidewalks.  It is not designated as a safe walk path by the city planners, but it will continue to be used by scores of walkers every morning and afternoon due to convenience.  Walkers and moving vehicles are literally feet apart from each other.

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Let us be clear – someone is going to be killed or badly injured.  This situation needs to be immediately addressed.  We are requesting police presence on Shadowmoor during school commute hours starting immediately (tomorrow morning Wed 8/7).  Monitoring for speeding and running of stop signs should be a focus.  We are also requesting that Shadowmoor be closed to through traffic and/or that only one side of the road be designed for residential parking.  While we understand that a sidewalk has been evaluated, that is undesirable due to the impact to neighborhood residents.  That solution would not address the issues of through traffic, speeding and running stop signs.

Action must be taken immediately.  It’s only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens.

– Clay Hawkins

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