We’d Never Have Roads As Incomplete As Our Sidewalks
Wednesday I was out photographing along Jefferson for future posts, the hottest day of the week. I had taken the #94 (Page) bus to Jefferson & Dr. Martin Luther King. Â I was going to up to the signal at Stoddard St. to cross Jefferson to the east. Â I get to Mills St. and see there is no curb cut on the other side, I can’t go any further. For new readers, I use a power wheelchair to go further than a block from my house.
Not that I would dare cross Jefferson without traffic stopped but I turned that direction. After all, the curb ramp was placed to serve two directions.
Of course, the two-direction corner curb ramp is installed without thought as to logical use. It has been a default. If a person in a wheelchair were to cross Jefferson at this point and be hit by a car the city would attempt to argue the person shouldn’t have done so. I’d argue the city, through the placement of the curb ramp, is implying that crossing Mills or Jefferson from this point is equally accessible. In fact, the ramp faces Jefferson more than Mills.
Even if I got to Stoddard St. I would have been stuck, I just noticed on Google Streetview that neither of the two crosswalks at the  signalized intersection have curb cuts on the east side of Jefferson.
If our road network was designed like our sidewalks, nobody could drive anywhere except a few select places. Pedestrian networks need to be as connected as the road they adjoin.
– Steve Patterson
It saddens me that our tax dollars paid for such a half-assed job, and that it’ll take more of our tax dollars to fix it.
It saddens me that our tax dollars paid for such a half-assed job, and that it’ll take more of our tax dollars to fix it.
Agreed, think of the money saved by not fixing it though [sarcasm].
Agreed, think of the money saved by not fixing it though [sarcasm].
While I share your frustration (from an accessibility standpoint), at least in most parts of the city we do have sidewalks. Go many places in the county and there are no sidewalks, at all. So, is our glass half full or half empty?
The challenge of any travel infrastructure are the missing links. The solution is, obviously, filling in those missing links. The question then becomes is a scattershot approach (like here) the best way to get things done? Or, would it be better to spend our limited resources focusing on one small area at a time, say going ward by ward, for instance?
While I share your frustration (from an accessibility standpoint), at least in most parts of the city we do have sidewalks. Go many places in the county and there are no sidewalks, at all. So, is our glass half full or half empty?
The challenge of any travel infrastructure are the missing links. The solution is, obviously, filling in those missing links. The question then becomes is a scattershot approach (like here) the best way to get things done? Or, would it be better to spend our limited resources focusing on one small area at a time, say going ward by ward, for instance?
With 28 wards that approach would be unfair to those that came last. We must take a broader view and look at access to community buildings such as schools. The magnet school on the corner of the old Pruitt-Igoe site was built within the last 10-15 years. Thought should have been given to pedestrian access. The SLPS could have worked with the city to improve walkability to the school. It may not have happened by the day the school opened, but such efforts would help prioritize efforts to improve walkability.
Basically agree. Unfortunately, it requires overcoming three major hurdles. One, it would require an inventory – we need to spend money, probably several hundred thousand dollars, to document where every missing link is. Two, we need to prioritize which ones will be done first, in the middle and, yes, last. This will require agreeing on priorities and compromising, not spreading the work “equally” by ward. And three, this will require a long-term financial commitment, for something that is viewed by many voters as pretty mundane. We can’t just tie most improvements to “new” work; we need to go back and retrofit many parts of town where little or no new work is happening. And we need to balance this against spending money on pay and benefits for current employees, paying pensions to retired employees, buying new fire trucks and police cars, cutting grass in our parks, rebuilding failing infrastructure, etc, etc, etc . . . .
Would have to agree with Steve and yourself on principle. The bigger issue is simply the fact that infrastructure was built for a city that once had twice the population it has new the bigger tax base that came with. The question becomes, what do you change on the large scale and how do you remedy the fact that you got large tracts of tax exempt property to property that city owns outright. Simply put, I think this issue like many others can’t be addressed fiscally until their is a willingness to downsize and consolidate some neighborhoods.
Which ones should be downsized? The poorest and blackest? They’ve been targeted for shrinkage already with the Team Four Plan. Maybe not caring is why this was installed incorrectly in the first place! Chesterfield and others should pay for improving the core since areas west profit from the decline here. This austerity is the wrong solution chosen by people who don’t want regional reform and tax sharing which would undermine the status quo fragmentation.
Then get on the street and start pushing a tax referendum. Otherwise, the idea that others are to blame and should pay for it is a response that will get nowhere as it never gets nowhere and the same feeble rhetoric from my teenage daughter who doesn’t want to do her homework uses. Sorry Doug, you will never get regionalism when all you want to do is blame someone else.
“Instralled incorrectly” is not the problem. Changing expectations and missing links, as in no sidewalks at all, are! Until the 1970’s, no thought was given to providing wheelchair ramps on any public infrastructure projects. St. Louis has 150 years worth of curbs and gutters installed that don’t meet current ADA requirements. They’re not Chesterfield’s fault, nor are the sidewalks that randomly end, like those in my neighborhood, some just 10′ from a curb. If anything, Chesterfield needs to spend signicant dollars to make their part of the world as pedestrian-friendly as St. Louis’ imperfect system already is.
With 28 wards that approach would be unfair to those that came last. We must take a broader view and look at access to community buildings such as schools. The magnet school on the corner of the old Pruitt-Igoe site was built within the last 10-15 years. Thought should have been given to pedestrian access. The SLPS could have worked with the city to improve walkability to the school. It may not have happened by the day the school opened, but such efforts would help prioritize efforts to improve walkability.
Basically agree. Unfortunately, it requires overcoming three major hurdles. One, it would require an inventory – we need to spend money, probably several hundred thousand dollars, to document where every missing link is. Two, we need to prioritize which ones will be done first, in the middle and, yes, last. This will require agreeing on priorities and compromising, not spreading the work “equally” by ward. And three, this will require a long-term financial commitment, for something that is viewed by many voters as pretty mundane. We can’t just tie most improvements to “new” work; we need to go back and retrofit many parts of town where little or no new work is happening. And we need to balance this against spending money on pay and benefits for current employees, paying pensions to retired employees, buying new fire trucks and police cars, cutting grass in our parks, rebuilding failing infrastructure, etc, etc, etc . . . .
And from today’s Post-Dispatch: “A Granite City woman was killed Thursday evening when she was struck by a truck in Mitchell, Ill., . . . Police are not seeking charges against [the truck driver because the woman] should have avoided traffic in a stretch of road where there were no crosswalks or sidewalks.”
And from today’s Post-Dispatch: “A Granite City woman was killed Thursday evening when she was struck by a truck in Mitchell, Ill., . . . Police are not seeking charges against [the truck driver because the woman] should have avoided traffic in a stretch of road where there were no crosswalks or sidewalks.”
Would have to agree with Steve and yourself on principle. The bigger issue is simply the fact that infrastructure was built for a city that once had twice the population it has new the bigger tax base that came with. The question becomes, what do you change on the large scale and how do you remedy the fact that you got large tracts of tax exempt property to property that city owns outright. Simply put, I think this issue like many others can’t be addressed fiscally until their is a willingness to downsize and consolidate some neighborhoods.
Which ones should be downsized? The poorest and blackest? They’ve been targeted for shrinkage already with the Team Four Plan. Maybe not caring is why this was installed incorrectly in the first place! Chesterfield and others should pay for improving the core since areas west profit from the decline here. This austerity is the wrong solution chosen by people who don’t want regional reform and tax sharing which would undermine the status quo fragmentation.
Then get on the street and start pushing a tax referendum. Otherwise, the idea that others are to blame and should pay for it is a response that will get nowhere as it never gets nowhere and the same feeble rhetoric from my teenage daughter who doesn’t want to do her homework uses. Sorry Doug, you will never get regionalism when all you want to do is blame someone else.
“Instralled incorrectly” is not the problem. Changing expectations and missing links, as in no sidewalks at all, are! Until the 1970’s, no thought was given to providing wheelchair ramps on any public infrastructure projects. St. Louis has 150 years worth of curbs and gutters installed that don’t meet current ADA requirements. They’re not Chesterfield’s fault, nor are the sidewalks that randomly end, like those in my neighborhood, some just 10′ from a curb. If anything, Chesterfield needs to spend signicant dollars to make their part of the world as pedestrian-friendly as St. Louis’ imperfect system already is.