Exploratory Meeting

By Holt Road Alliance

A group of neighbors met at Marietta Coffee Company on November 14, 2023 with the intent to discuss walkability concerns around Holt Rd.

A few primary themes were brought up organically:

Crosswalk Efficacy

Several issues were noted highlighting the efficacy of existing crosswalks along Holt Rd.

  • A student was hit by a bus earlier in the 2023/2024 school year. The student was crossing Holt Rd. at a place where there was no crosswalk, and even if the student had used the existing crosswalk, the crosswalk itself had been partially broken and inoperable from the West side of Holt. for weeks prior. There is conflicting information on the severity of the student’s injuries.

  • Existing crosswalk linking Wheeler High School with Eastvalley Elementary has two primary issues:

    • Inconveniently located from where the majority of foot traffic tends to cross Holt Rd.

    Wheeler Crosswalk

    • Even if this crosswalk were conveniently located for foot traffic, the crosswalk has gone through extended (multi-week) periods of inoperability.

  • Existing crosswalk at the Holt/Robinson intersection which crosses Robinson Rd. leads to nowhere, just grass and dirt. This forces a pedestrian who may be walking to or from the nearest cross street (Mary Ann Dr.) to make a potentially dangerous decision:

    • Either opt to not use the crosswalk and cross Robinson Rd. near a blind curve, or
    • Walk approx. 230’ feet along a grass and dirt embankment.

    Robinson Crosswalk

Sidewalk Continuity

Sidewalk continuity is a problem, particularly along the south end of Holt Rd. from Sewell Mill Rd. to Lower Roswell Rd. On this section, sidewalks are entirely absent outside of a small section directly in front of the Mormon Church - which is of course never used as it connects to no other sidewalks.

Missing Sidewalks

  • Considering the amount of potential pedestrian traffic here, and the amount of people who walk along this section of Holt Rd. regardless, it would seem appropriate that sidewalks would be continued.

  • Sidewalks for the south end of Holt Rd. were noted in the 2016 SPLOST initiative, but never seceived funding. Source

Sidewalk Repair

Areas of existing sidewalks along Holt Rd. are in need of obvious repair and present a risk of injury to pedestrians. While bicycling on sidewalks is technically against the law, it still occurs for those moving at low speeds, and the current state of sidewalk repair in some areas presents a risk of injury here as well.

Imaginary Stop Signs

The carpool line feeding into the access road on the North side of the Wheeler High School campus presents a curious phenomenon in the mornings. Cars traveling south on Holt Rd. seem to stop, in the middle of a moving traffic lane, to let cars turning left into the access road turn.

There is no stop sign here, and cars traveling along Holt Rd. are under no obligation to stop for left-turning traffic. Despite this, an “imaginary stop sign” seems to appear, where this intersection ends up being treated like a 4-way stop despite no signage.

This is dangerous. A car properly obeying the rules of the road and moving through the intersection is at risk of a head-on collision from a left-turning vehicle making an improper assumption that the oncoming car is going to stop for them.

Imaginary Stop Sign

Next Steps

Next steps from this meeting will include:

  • Additional communication with the Cobb BOC (particularly Jerica Richardson,the present District 2 commissioner as of the time this post was written).
  • Additional community communication (email, web, social?)
  • Identifying community outreach (walk feasibility study, walk-to-school event, etc.)
  • Forming Holt Road Alliance as a non-profit.

If you have any experience with these issues, or are a concerned neighbor in the area, we would love to speak with you. Please leverage the form on the Connect page.