Report: Traffic deaths outnumbered homicides last year in metro Atlanta

The latest: Vehicle collisions caused 425 deaths last year in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties, a 9.6% decrease from 470 in 2023, according to the group's The Human Cost of Mobility: 2024 report.

• But that was more than the 410 people who were killed last year in homicides in the same five counties, according to Propel ATL.

What they're saying: "This is a question of design," Serna told Axios. "When decision makers design streets that are primarily about moving cars through quickly and trying to minimize congestion, we get people dying as a result."

Catch up quick: Propel ATL's prior editions focused on the city of Atlanta, but it expanded last year to include areas serviced by MARTA (Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties).

• Cobb and Gwinnett counties were included because they have some form of transit service.

Zoom in: The report's interactive map features stories of people who were killed on local roadways, such as Allen London, who was fatally struck by a driver at a bus stop in DeKalb County, and Tom Duncan, a cyclist who died after a driver struck him from behind in Atlanta.

The intrigue: Pedestrians and cyclists accounted for 139 of those deaths in 2024, a 3.8% increase from 2023.

• Serna told Axios research shows that larger passenger vehicles pose a greater risk to pedestrians.
• Vehicles are not only taller, but have flatter front ends, which means more people are getting hit in the head on initial impact, Serna said.

State of play: 43.1% of census tracts in the five-county region are predominantly Black, but they made up 61.3% of where traffic fatalities occurred last year.

• Majority-Black communities are more likely to have "dangerous, very fast roads that are designed to just move cars through," Serna said, and they're also more likely to have people who lack access to vehicles.
• These two factors make walking or cycling in these communities precarious for residents.

The big picture: Atlanta's Hollowell Parkway is an example of a roadway where residents spent decades pushing for change and finally saw significant improvements.

• Hollowell, a state highway, was Propel ATL's eighth-most-dangerous roadway between 2019 and 2023, but it now ranks 19th in the report.
• The Georgia Department of Transportation's project on Hollowell reduced travel lanes, installed "refuge islands," and updated pedestrian crosswalks.