Georgia Bikes, the statewide nonprofit working to improve biking, walking, and rolling for everyone, has been chosen to receive a 2023 AARP Community Challenge grant from AARP Livable Communities and AARP Georgia. This award will allow the organization to pilot a new, community-driven approach to addressing dangerous intersections and corridors.

Through the Community Challenge grant, Georgia Bikes will develop and implement a novel “crash-screening” system that prioritizes both quantitative data and, for the first time, community input throughout the process. Crash-screening analyses are an important part of how engineers identify and address dangerous roads and, at the state level, how the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) develops and funds critical safety projects.

However, even when these analyses do focus on vulnerable road users (VRU), they rarely include community-informed details of why crashes may be injuring and/or killing people who walk, bike, and roll. Additionally, traditional crash-screening analyses do not pay special attention to the specific safety challenges of the 50-plus community. These are both opportunities that Georgia Bikes will address in the pilot project.

Beyond analyzing crash data along a pre-selected corridor, grant funds will also support the development and implementation of tailored safety education training for local residents based on frequent crash types and roadway conditions. Finally, a VRU safety screening toolkit will create a guide that will encourage other areas to apply this same community-focused crash screening locally.

“I’m incredibly proud that AARP selected Georgia Bikes for this investment in making our state more livable for residents of all ages.” said John Devine, AICP, Executive Director. “We’re grateful for our long-standing partnership with AARP Georgia, whose team has always supported our mission to make Georgia a better place to bike and walk. As we all know, community members who are able to ‘age in place’ by staying in their neighborhoods throughout adulthood often lead more independent lives than some of their peers. However, they must be able to get around safely, which is why we’re so excited to develop and implement this new community-focused crash-screening process with a special focus on older adults.”

To learn more about the grant program, visit www.AARP.org/CommunityChallenge. For more information about Georgia Bikes’ 2023 AARP Community Challenge grant project, contact John Devine, AICP, Georgia Bikes Executive Director at [email protected]. Find out more about

Georgia Bikes by visiting www.georgiabikes.org or follow Georgia Bikes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.