THE SCRAWNY SIDEWALK
Wide sidewalks are a basic part of universal design.
They benefit
everyone: people pushing strollers, slow walkers, those who use crutches,
children on bicycles, and the army of delivery people wheeling goods in our
contactless commerce era.
The Federal
Highway Administration suggests a minimum sidewalk width of eight feet for high
pedestrian traffic areas, while noting that the bare minimum of four feet can
still force people into the roadway if a barrier is introduced.
The National
Association of City Transportation Officials, meanwhile, states that a minimum
width of five feet meets Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards but
recommends eight to 12 feet in downtown and commercial areas.
In practical
terms, a sidewalk must be at least six feet wide to allow two wheelchair users
to safely pass each other.
But in many
cases, even dense urban places with mixed-use development, sidewalks are barely
three to four feet wide.
The base
width might be around five feet, but the effective width is pinched to three by
parking meters, street furniture, power polls, waste baskets, bike racks, cave
in street tree grates, and other obstructions.
Take New York City for example.
Meli Harvey, a senior computational designer at Sidewalk
Labs, mapped the city and found that many side streets and corridors in
boroughs outside Manhattan are far too narrow — especially when a pandemic
requires us to stay six feet away from each other.
The
resulting tool shows vast areas of New York highlighted in red and orange
— color coded warnings for areas that are too narrow for social distancing, or
for those in assistive mobility devices to navigate comfortably and safely.
So how do we
fix this?
A road diet
paired with sidewalk fattening could help, as could removing obstructions,
especially if they're obsolete for current uses.
Some codes
allow a boost in floor area ration or height in return for the developer
creating extra sidewalk width along the frontage of the property.
Chicago, for
example, allows floor area bonuses, as determined by the zoning administrator,
for sidewalk widening.
The code also
gives an economic incentive to developers for other pedestrian-friendly
improvements like arcades and indoor/outdoor through block connections.
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