GUEST BLOGGER: Serena Zhang, Fifty Forward Summer Intern and Rising High School Senior
Have you ever been stranded at the edge of a sidewalk–looking into the hopeless jungle of uneven grass, potholes, potentially fatal anthills, and ruthless intersections between you and the next stretch of sidewalk?
Though the Atlanta region should ultimately aim to increase the total mileage of sidewalks in general, I believe planners should concentrate on connecting existing sidewalks first. It’s not that sidewalks do not exist, it’s their lack of accessibility that prevents them from becoming more successful. I believe developers will aid pedestrians more by forming networks through bridging individual stretches than by creating a new piece of sidewalk safely tucked away from public use.
If more people use sidewalks, maybe the use will spread. Hopefully, it will be contagious.
June 20, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I love your picture blurb thing!
And that’s such a great idea, concentrating on connecting sidewalks instead of just building more. I know that the few times that i take walks, i HATE it, when the sidewalk just ends, and then you have nowhere to go.. or the rest of the sidewalk is on the other side of the intersection.
…Which brings up another point.
In many intersections around Atlanta, the crosswalk lights don’t work, or they work for too short of a time so that you are stranded in the median when the crosswalk light changes back to red and are forced to jaywalk the rest of the way, which is extremely unsafe, needless to say. The worst part of these crosswalk mishaps is that they’re usually in the biggest, high-speed-limit intersections, rather than smaller, “safer” intersections.
June 24, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Anonymous, you make a great point. To take it one step further, as our population ages it will become increasingly important that the planning, implementation, and maintenance of sidewalks, crosswalks, and crossing signals take into account the needs of older pedestrians, who may not be able to safely walk on uneven sidewalks or cross streets as quickly as the light says they should.
June 24, 2008 at 6:45 pm
It is like that episode of Gilmore Girls where they are installing the first crossing signal in Star’s Hollow. They time the signal to match the slowest moving member of the town. Although this may not be a reasonable solution to some crosswalk signal problems, it does draw attention to a common problem and presents it in a funny circumstance. hopefully this drawing will be able to help others see the sidewalk problems in a new way and motivate them to take action.
July 25, 2008 at 6:53 am
OH!
idk if anyone will read this
but
when I went to china, all the crosswalks had lights that counted down the seconds