Pedestrian advocates say Six Flags Drive is a prime example of why metro Atlanta is considered a dangerous place to walk.

The street has a number of apartment complexes with residents who don’t drive. They walk to the nearest bus stop, often crossing the four-lane street without using crosswalks, since crosswalks are few and far between. One side of the street doesn’t have a sidewalk.

“If you are going to pick a place in metro Atlanta that would be ground zero for a poorly designed and dangerous street scape, it would be right here,” said Ray Christman, executive director of the Livable Communities Coalition, an organization that encourages smart growth in metro Atlanta.

Christman’s group partnered with P.E.D.S., metro-Atlanta’s pedestrian advocacy organization, to support a study by two national advocacy groups, Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership. The new report, “Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths, ranks metro-Atlanta as the 10th most dangerous place to walk in the nation.

“I believe it,” said Tasha Corprew. She walks to and from the bus stop every day. CBS Atlanta asked Corprew if she has ever had any close calls. “Yes, plenty of close calls,” she said.

Michael Orta of P.E.D.S. used a radar gun to show how fast people drive on Six Flags Drive. He tracked one car at 67 mph.

CBS Atlanta asked the Chief Executive Officer of P.E.D.S. Sally Flocks how local governments are dealing with the problem. “Local governments are not doing enough,“ Flocks said.

Flocks said Cobb County conducted a study recently which agrees that Six Flags Drive needs curbed islands in the medians and sidewalks. But Flocks said nothing has been done. “It’s not that expensive to do. It’s just a question of allocating the money for the things that can really make it safer,” she said.

Orta said nearly 10 percent of people who die in traffic accidents are pedestrians, but less than two percent of available federal transportation funds are for pedestrian projects. That has to change, he said, before metro Atlanta can be considered a pedestrian friendly place to live.