Shel Silverstein, Urban Planner

In college, I was technical director on a production of An Evening With Shel Silverstein, a surprisingly (?) raunchy production written by the famous poet. 

That doesn't, however, mean that I like seeing his most famous, more child-friendly, work repurposed into urban planning circles.

I'm talking, of course, about Where The Sidewalk Ends.

Sidewalks ending is, in fact, one of my biggest complaints about urbanism in cities that might otherwise do better (see: New York losing to Vancouver). So today I wanted to talk about the issue of when and why sidewalks end--and why it sucks.

1. Sidewalks Should End With Purpose

Since I do not, in fact, wish to see the entire world covered in concrete and asphalt, I do agree that sidewalks have to end.

I'll even acknowledge that there are roads where there should not be sidewalks: fast roads, interstates, that kind of thing, places where walking would be inherently dangerous. There should be alternate routes around those of course, but a sidewalk might end when it reaches such a place if there is nowhere else to go.

But it shouldn't feel random or pointless.

And it really shouldn't feel pointed, as in the example above: this is literally feet from my local Hy-Vee, near a major intersection with lots of shops in addition to the grocery store, and the sidewalk--which had been perfectly existent before--suddenly ends.

It's not even in anyone's way! There's no reason that this strip should be grass, not sidewalk, because that retaining wall on the right already has people's lawns on it! If anything, this is harder to maintain, since somehow someone has to get down here to mow it!

A sidewalk should end when there's nothing to walk to--not when a landowner or the city is just too bored to put one in.

2. Sidewalks Should Be Functional - Even Under Construction

There is, of course, another way a sidewalk can "end": it can cease to function as a sidewalk, even if something bearing that appearance or name continues. Something like this:

There's no actual option here forward for a pedestrian, let alone for someone in a wheelchair or pushing a stroller/pram/etc. Yes, legally the sidewalk didn't end--but practically it did.

I acknowledge the need to repair sidewalks. I like that they're putting in actual curb cuts (which is what that is for above) near my house. But when they do that, there should be some kind of alternative provided--a protected walking path, or a detour sign, or something. Not just--this.

3. Sidewalks Work As a Network

The reason I emphasize this so much is that sidewalks really work as infrastructure, rather than as mere civil obligation, when they are part of an interconnected network that allows for pedestrian and related access. Yes, it helps to have a sidewalk to go from parking space to shop, but that could just be a parking lot. What sets a sidewalk apart is the ability to keep walking on. To experience the city. To go places on foot--whether from one shop to another after you parked, or actually on foot from the start (assisted or not by public transit). 

Like this Toronto example, a good sidewalk is designed with the idea that people will actually use it to go somewhere. Wayfinding like this is useful, but the bigger point is the width, and the fact that it is part of a whole set of routes so that you can do meaningful wayfinding, because there is a way to find. This kind of pole wouldn't mean diddly in Davenport. In Toronto, it's a way of understanding how you could walk from that spot to other spots in the city.

Sidewalks that end disrupt that network; they make it so that walking both looks like and is less of an option. Both of those matter, by the way: both the appearance (why would I walk here?) and the reality (how could I walk here?). And a sidewalk that isn't there because it ended contributes to both kinds of skepticism. Sidewalks do need to end--but they should do so in chosen ways in chosen places, with the default urban form being one that is actually walkable.

There is one exception to the need for sidewalks, of course: if there's no road to be beside.

But I don't really think that the places where sidewalks randomly end are up to fully pedestrianized streets.

Maybe for a parade.

Not, like this, for always.

What is it like in your city? Do you have a real pedestrian network of sidewalks? Or are you too hoping not to run into a Shel Silverstein poem on your way to the grocery store?