Bloody Sidewalks Again

For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I still go places on foot, I have been thinking about sidewalks again.

I recently read an article about how delivery robots require good sidewalk infrastructure to work. And this is likely true, but it struck me as deeply ironic that someone's reasoning for making sidewalks actually functional would be robotic, rather than human. After all, sidewalks are fundamentally something (that ought to be) designed for humans, even if robots may use them, and humans should matter enough that we design them and maintain them and repair them, robots or no.

But of course, we don't.

1. Sidewalks Get Least Priority

There's a lot of construction going on around the part of the Quad Cities where I live and work, and that means a lot of construction signs.

Can anyone identify for me the problem that this signage might cause? 

How about this one?

Yes, a delivery robot is going to have trouble with these, but so too does my human body. The need to tell cars that something is coming trumps the need to allow pedestrians to move safely at all. Can you imagine putting signs for a sidewalk blockage in the street in the way of cars just to make sure that it communicates without blocking the pedestrians? Of course you can't.

And yes, cars go a lot faster and there is a much higher chance of a serious accident if a car driver doesn't know that their lane is disappearing. But that's just more evidence of how dangerous car culture is, not a good reason to screw over pedestrians.

2. Sidewalks Are Abandoned 

Look, we have pothole problems in the QCA too.

As someone who bikes over these and has had so many popped back tires on my ebike that the back wheel is dented, I am highly aware of this. 

But potholes get fixed, even if slowly, badly, and without consideration for non-car road users.

The only times that I can recall our sidewalks getting fixed are for ADA compliance at intersections, and as you can see, that isn't near as...undisruptive a process as filling a pothole.

Note that there are multiple issues of mismatched heights on sidewalk pavers around this corner and the fix to the corner didn't come with any further repairs.

Our sidewalk infrastructure isn't just a lower priority, it's actively crumbling. 

3. The Sidewalk Isn't Even Access

And to add insult to injury, we've built our cities so much around the car here in the USA that you can't actually use the sidewalk to access businesses and services in some places--even when there is a sidewalk. I'm not even talking about the 1/3 of the population that lives where there are no sidewalks. I'm talking about walking somewhere with a sidewalk--but the sidewalk doesn't let you get where you need to go anyway.

Here's the front door of a local clinic. But you can't actually enter via the front door on the sidewalk. You have to walk around back to the parking lot. 

And the business next door, which I didn't feel comfortable photographing at the time, is literally drive-through only despite the sidewalk going right past it.

And just because there's supposed to be a sidewalk doesn't mean there actually is one, anyway.

It's just so very frustrating--and it makes me annoyed that this is being reported as a problem for robots when it's already such a problem for people.