Thank you for contacting the City of Roswell Department of Transportation. Your request has been assigned to one of our team members and will be reviewed in the order of priority.

Traffic Engineering assigned this issue to Derrick Crowder

Thank you for contacting the City of Roswell Transportation Department regarding your concern for pedestrians crossing Hembree Road near Northgate Court. Our staff performed a field investigation and did observe, as you indicated, that the slight hillcrest combined with the curvature of Hembree Road to the east can limit the visibility that pedestrians have of approaching cars if they attempted to walk across Hembree Road from south to north. However, the reverse pedestrian crossing (from south to north) had a better field of view and did not have the same issue.

Our site visit also revealed that the visibility of approaching cars from the east improved the further west you moved further towards Northgate Way. In fact, the sight distance starts to noticeably improve just 100 feet or so west of Northgate Court compared to at Northgate Court itself. Therefore, at the moment, we would encourage anyone attempting to cross Hembree Road to do so at a point further west where they can see (and be seen by) approaching vehicles from the east.

With regard to installation of a pedestrian signal or speed humps, the number of potential pedestrian crossings are not likely to represent even 1% of the required amount to warrant a pedestrian signal, and speed humps are prohibited from being installed on collector streets such as Hembree Road. However, the condition may benefit from the installation of cross-street warning signs with a reduced advisory speed plate to better advise motorists of the side street connection. We will install those signs if warranted.

Unfortunately, as with most subdivisions within the city, the rural character desired by the neighborhoods often precluded the provision of sidewalks, which now, years later presents a mobility challenge for residents that desire more walkable streets. Sidewalks have been required by city code for the past several years, but it will be a long and expensive undertaking to retrofit sidewalks and missing connections that were not installed by the individual neighborhoods years ago. However, if your neighborhood has an interest in participating in funding a sidewalk connector from the neighborhood to a point west of Northgate Court to create a better pedestrian crossing point, city staff would be willing to discuss that further. Pedestrian safety is one of our highest priorities, but we do not the budget to accomplish everything we would like to do. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Scott Brunner, City Traffic Engineer, at sbrunner@roswellgov.com.

We appreciate your interest is pedestrian safety for your neighborhood.