Pedestrian death at Peachtree Center renews crosswalk safety debate

“My father viewed this as a crosswalk,” said Sood’s daughter, Puja Jabbour of Dallas. “He crossed the street everyday, sometimes several times a day, to get to the Peachtree Center food court or the bank. Everyone does.”

The police report noted that the area where the incident took place appears to be a crosswalk, but also states that the driver wasn’t at fault. “How can a driver literally hit and kill a pedestrian and the pedestrian be at fault? It’s mind-boggling to me,” Jabbour said.

Credit: Puja Jabbour

Credit: Puja Jabbour

The issue of pedestrian safety dates to the 1960s, when downtown was redeveloped so commuters could enter and depart on wide roads designed for speedy access to highways. Many suburbanites who work in the city want to keep it that way.

The incident is especially troubling, business leaders said, because the city narrowed Peachtree Street for three blocks between Baker Street and Ellis Street in 2021 during a pilot project that aimed to slow traffic and reduce road racing. The end goal of that project was to pedestrianize this stretch of road.

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Credit: Jenni Girtman

At that time, the city also added a crosswalk connecting 225 Peachtree St. and the AmericasMart building across the street.

But commuters and a prominent building owner protested, and in 2022, the road was converted back to four lanes, according to documents seen by the AJC. Yet the crosswalk wasn’t fully removed. Rather, it was allowed to fade, creating confusion for drivers who can’t always see it and for pedestrians who still consider it valid.

Credit: City of Atlanta

Credit: City of Atlanta

“It’s a failure of city planning and transportation management,” said Councilman Amir Farokhi, who represents the neighborhood. “Peachtree Street through downtown is a major pedestrian corridor. The death should be a call to action to make Peachtree Street a place that’s uniformly safe for pedestrians.”

The Atlanta Department of Transportation said in a statement that it aims to improve pedestrian safety and enhance streetscaping as part of the Moving Atlanta Forward initiative. Mayor Andre Dickens’ office did not respond to requests for comment.

Credit: Michael Scaturro

Credit: Michael Scaturro

Farokhi said at a time when downtown is struggling, people are hungry for compelling and safe public spaces. Downtown businesses agreed.

Several, including Miami-based Banyan Street Capital (owner of Peachtree Center), the Westin Hotel, Southern Exchange (200 Peachtree), and AmericasMart wrote letters supporting the project, known as Share Peachtree.

On Feb. 7, just four days before Sood was killed, AmericasMart Senior Vice President Michael Magnotta expressed concern about the crosswalk in an email to APD Major Christian J. Hunt.

The preferred design change discussed in the emails called for the creation of a crosswalk with signage and flashing pedestrian lights, similar to one installed in front of the MARTA Midtown station next to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

Chelsea Bohannon, a spokeswoman for AmericasMart’s parent company, ANDMORE, said in a statement: “We are saddened by this tragic event and our thoughts are with the family of the victim.” She declined further comment citing the ongoing investigation.

Stuart Jackson, who lives and works in downtown Atlanta, witnessed the accident from the window of his office at Peachtree Center.

“I saw a guy’s crumpled body on the ground,” Jackson said. “Cars were honking to try to get traffic to move.”

Jackson says on most days, office workers scurry across the street in the crosswalk as police parked nearby look on.

Louis Deas, who works on Peachtree Street, is one of those office workers. “It would be nice if the crosswalk was clearly marked,” he said. “I cross this road every day when I eat at Peachtree Center. Drivers don’t always stop.”

Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown development group, has been the main organizing body linking businesses and residents in efforts to lobby the city for a safer Peachtree Street.

“It’s not the first fatality that occurred there,” Jennifer Ball, CAP’s chief operating officer, said of the crosswalk. “There is certainly a group of people that wants to be car-centric, and they aren’t ready to give up what they have. It’s a vocal minority.”

An earlier safer streets project that aimed to convert nearby Baker Street to a two-way road to slow traffic also met opposition from commuter groups. Richard Bowers, a real estate investor whose building sits along Peachtree and Baker, led efforts to have that project scrapped, according to a column by the AJC’s Bill Torpy.

During a May 2019 transportation committee meeting, Bowers opposed the Baker Street narrowing because he felt it would increase commute times, shows a video of the meeting.

Starting in 2006, Bowers hired six transportation lobbyists, paying each $10,000 or more, according to the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission database.

CAP and a group of Atlanta business leaders, including Robert J. Maricich, chairman of ANDMORE, had been asking for the crosswalk to be maintained over Bowers’ objections. In March 2022, Maricich wrote in an email to CAP President AJ Robinson: “A month ago when I heard Bowers was opposing the pedestrian way, I called and set up a Zoom appointment. He accepted the meeting and then was a no show ... and did not respond to rescheduling. What is the best way to contact the mayor?”

Maricich was chairman and CEO of ANDMORE from 2011-24, when he became chairman of the board, according to ANDMORE’s website.

Bowers did not respond to repeated requests for comment or to questions emailed to him. Matthew Peterson, from Smart Streets Atlanta, said in an emailed statement: “Any loss of life or fatality is horrible, and our prayers go out to the families of all those involved.”

He added: “The narrowing of the streets prevents proper response to active shooters and/or five alarm fires, and adversely affected multiple stakeholders on Peachtree and their execution of their operations.”

Peterson said he met with Maricich on Bowers’ behalf, but that he did not consider the crosswalk to be valid because it was placed on Peachtree Street as part of the Share Peachtree project.

“It was never a crosswalk and was a dangerous crossing from day one,” Peterson said in an emailed statement. “What I recommended is that from Peachtree and Baker Streets to Peachtree and Ellis Streets, the city install a speed table and or raised crosswalks at the intersections where the traffic lights are located. I have also suggested this to Keven Greene, CEO of Midtown Alliance, to do the same from Tenth Street to 17th Street.”

A “speed table” is a raised section of road, similar to a speed bump but longer and flatter on top, designed to slow vehicle traffic.

Lobbying efforts to thwart both the Peachtree Street crosswalk and safety improvements to Baker Street were organized by a company called Smart Streets Atlanta LLC. Its office is located at 260 Peachtree St., Suite 2500 — the same location as RB Management, an affiliate of Richard Bowers & Co, according to the Georgia Corporations Division database.

The death should serve as a wakeup call to Mayor Andre Dickens and city officials, said Rebecca Serna of PropelATL. “This was a daytime pedestrian fatality, and that’s rare,” Serna said.

She said the first step toward making Peachtree Street safer would be shortening street-crossing distances so that crosswalks no longer span four lanes.

It’s a message that Veronica Watts knows too well. The Emory lobbyist was struck by a car and gravely injured in February 2024 while trying to cross a four-lane crosswalk at the intersection of Piedmont and North avenues in Midtown.

Just days after Sood’s death, she found herself traversing Peachtree Street.

“That crosswalk is hell,” Watts said. “There was a cheerleading competition and an expo, and 40 people were just running across the street.”

Tim Keane, head of planning and permitting at the City of Charleston (S.C.), and Atlanta’s planning commissioner when the crosswalk was installed, compared plans to remake Peachtree Street to New York City’s pedestrianization of Times Square 15 years ago. He said the efforts will lead to a safer and more livable downtown.

“The vibrancy of Peachtree Street and many blocks of downtown Atlanta require this kind of public investment,” he told the AJC.

For her part, Ball from Central Atlanta Progress says the Stitch Project, which will see a section of Peachtree Street that overlays I-75 be covered and made into a park, is the next step to reducing traffic fatalities.

“It took us a generation to get here, and it’s going to take a generation to fix it,” she said.