Decatur's Main Roads Already Slowed Down. Next Up Are the Streets the City Owns.

When did you last check the speed limit on Church Street? Or East Lake Drive, or West Trinity Place? Decatur already lowered the limits on its five big state routes. Now the city is studying the streets that carry most local trips: the school runs, the drive to the Square, the cut-through to the grocery store.

The highways were the easy part. The city's own streets are where Decatur gets to set its pace, and getting a new number on a sign there takes a formal engineering process that won't finish before 2027.

The Five Roads That Already Changed

The Georgia Department of Transportation, working with the city, cut speed limits by 5 mph on the state routes running through Decatur. The City Commission approved the request in September 2025, according to Decaturish.

Decaturish quoted Assistant City Manager Cara Scharer on why the city wanted it. She said lower limits on these roads help "by reducing stopping distances, improving driver reaction times and increasing the survivability of crashes." The city ties both efforts to its Decatur Safe Streets Safety Action Plan, which names vehicle speed as one of the biggest factors in how likely a crash is and how bad it gets.

Those five roads belong to the state, though. The streets the city owns needed a separate process, and that process started this year.

The 17 Streets Now on the Table

The city's Decatur Speed Study covers City-owned streets currently posted above 25 mph. The city's Speed Management page already describes a citywide 25 mph policy for City-owned streets. 11Alive reported that many smaller residential streets are already signed at 25. So the study is about the larger streets that are still faster than that.

In September, 11Alive published the list the city gave it:

• 2nd Avenue
• N. Arcadia Avenue/Sams Crossing
• Church Street
• Clairemont Avenue
• S. Columbia Drive
• Commerce Drive
• N. Decatur Road
• East Lake Drive
• Forkner Drive
• E./W. Howard Avenue
• Katie Kerr Drive
• Kirk Road
• N. McDonough Street
• S. McDonough Street
• Oakview Road
• E./W. Ponce de Leon Avenue
• E./W. Trinity Place

Downtown Decatur's main streets are on that list: Ponce, Trinity, Church, McDonough. So are connectors like East Lake Drive, Oakview Road, Howard Avenue and North Decatur Road. Any change from this study will show up on the streets residents drive and walk every day, more than the state routes did.

Clairemont Avenue and Commerce Drive are on both lists. Their state-route stretches already dropped to 30, which suggests other segments with the same names are owned by the city and are still in play. It's the same street name with a different owner, depending on which block you're on.

Why the City Can't Just Swap the Signs

A 25 mph policy on paper doesn't put up a single sign. The city's study page explains why:

Speed limit reductions must be supported by an engineering and traffic investigation consistent with Georgia Department of Transportation requirements.

That's the reason for the study. In April 2026, the City Commission approved a $150,000 contract with Toole Design Group and set a total project budget of $165,000, Decaturish reported. WSB-TV covered the approval on April 9.

The city says the study will produce recommendations street by street, showing where limits should come down and what it takes to make each change. Some streets may come back with more than a new number.

What the Data Is Actually Measuring

Counting started in August. In September, Metro Atlanta CEO reported that the study was using road tubes and cameras to record traffic volume, speeds, vehicle types and bike and pedestrian activity. If you've driven over a black rubber cable stretched across a city street lately, that was probably part of the study.

For each street, the city's project page says the team is reviewing:

1. The current posted limit
2. Actual vehicle speeds and traffic volumes, including 85th-percentile speeds
3. Roadway characteristics and the land uses along it
4. Crash and safety data
5. Pedestrian, bicycle and transit activity
6. Connections to schools, parks, Downtown Decatur, neighborhoods and other destinations
7. Whether the street is on the city's High Injury Network or High Risk Network

The 85th-percentile speed matters most. It's the speed that 85% of drivers stay at or under, which makes it a measure of how fast a street actually feels to the people driving it. When that number sits well above the posted limit, a new sign alone may not change much.

The city says the same thing in its own words: "A lower number on a sign is most effective when the design of the street reinforces the desired travel speed." Where it makes sense, the study may point to other speed-management tools beyond signs. So for some of these 17 streets, the result could eventually be physical changes to how the street is built, not just a new number.

The Calendar From Here

As of this week, the study is about halfway through its public process. Here's the schedule from the city's project page and meeting notices:

1. August 2026: Study kickoff and data collection
2. September 10, 2026: Public Meeting #1 at the Decatur Recreation Center
3. October 27, 2026: Public Meeting #2 at the Decatur Public Works Community Room, 2635 Talley St., where the city planned to present initial data findings
4. September through December 2026: Community engagement continues, with a third public meeting still to be scheduled
5. December 2026 through January 2027: Draft recommendations
6. January 2027: Final study

The city is clear that the final study isn't the finish line for signs. "GDOT approvals can take time to process and there may be a lag between the final study and new speed limit signs on the roads," the project page says. Any new limit on Church Street or East Lake Drive would come after the January 2027 final study and after the GDOT approvals that follow it.

If you want to weigh in on your own street, the third meeting is your next chance. Its date will be posted on the speed study page and the city's calendar.

Where This Fits in Decatur's Bigger Street Plans

The speed study is one of three street-related efforts the city has underway right now.

On Scott Boulevard, which already dropped to 35 mph as a state route, the city is preparing a separate Scott Boulevard Complete Streets project funded by a federal BUILD grant. Its engineering design solicitation was advertised July 22, 2026, with a preferred firm to be selected by September 24, and the anticipated performance period runs January 2027 through November 2029. That's the same idea the speed study points toward, matching the street's design to the speed the city wants, applied to a state route.

On October 19, the City Commission unanimously approved an update to the Destination 2030 comprehensive plan, Decaturish reported. It promotes "10-minute neighborhoods," where residents can meet most daily needs within a short walk, bike ride or transit trip, partly by carrying out the Decatur PATH Plan. The plan doesn't change zoning and isn't legally binding. Mayor Tony Powers said any zoning changes would go through public input. Still, a short walk to the Square or the corner store feels different when the street beside the sidewalk is signed at 25 instead of 30 or 35.

The city's own summary of the study puts it this way: "Reducing vehicle speeds is not about making it difficult to travel through Decatur. It is about making sure that the speed of traffic reflects the places our streets travel through and the people who use them."

You can walk some of those places on Saturday, November 7, when the Decatur Wine Festival runs from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 101 E. Court Square, according to the Decatur Arts Alliance.

If you live on one of these 17 streets, or you're thinking about buying on one, I'm happy to talk through what the study could mean for your block. Call or email Ginger Pressley and we'll look at your street together.