COMMENT OF THE DAY: BRING YOUR MUD BOOTS “There are too many high-speed arterials, especially outside the Loop, with no sidewalks. I was taking the bus to work for about a month earlier this year (I work in an office on the North beltway). There are bus stops there but no sidewalks. Speeds on the feeder road tend to be 45 to 50 mph. There are few pedestrians (for obvious reasons) but there are some; bus commuters like me, kids walking to school every day, etc. They will walk on muddy paths to avoid walking in the street. And bus riders with wheelchairs or strollers are simply SOL. I liked riding the bus, but not the sidewalk-free walk at the end of the ride.” [RWB, commenting on Where the Sidewalks End]
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The West Beltway also has this problem. Not only are there no sidewalks for portions of my walk to work, some business have erected barriers to keep people from walking through their parking lots.
On several occasions I have seen people in wheelchairs in the road with cars going around them at 45-60 mph.
How can this situation possibly be tolerable to the City of Houston and Harris County?
Hmmm.. interesting as well as timely, as I have been running some scoping numbers to add sidewalks to my new/old neighborhood. In the neighborhood, I would easily justify the expense, as sidewalks tend to raise property values. A question that comes to mind is why there are no planning codes that require sidewalks to be added when there is road construction of any kind.
My scoping numbers, just a few inquiries and a bit of searching looks like around $4-5/sf for conventional 5″ concrete sidewalks and maybe another 50% for porous systems that would aid in drainage/retention.
This discussion bleeds into a debate about adding bike paths as well.. how much could be added for a certain % of metro dollars.. are current path contracts maximizing dollars…
Discuss amongst yourselves (Coffe Twalk Style)
Pedestrian unfriendly by Chron cartoonist Nick Anderson.