Sidewalks are a typical part of my day; I travel upon them on a daily basis. However, I cannot just cruise along on any given sidewalk without thinking ahead or have the understanding that I may end up needing to alter my path of travel. When it comes to sidewalks, the United States is one of the more modernized countries, but still has a long way to go to be completely accessible to all.
The Federal law here in the states mandates that every time an area of road is renovated, the sidewalks must be updated as well. This is a law with good intentions, and for the most part does keep sidewalks and curb cuts up to date. However, there are sidewalks that are terrible and fall through the cracks of being updated and are left in an unacceptable state, while sidewalks and curb cuts on main roads are replaced time and time again. I have come across many places that are lacking a curb cut altogether.
It is frustrating, as a person in a wheelchair, to see curb cuts that already exist being updated, while there are places I cannot travel because there is not a curb cut out at all. I am grateful that towns and cities are required to update curb cuts as some could be potentially hazardous, but I do not understand how even those can be updated while there are still places that the sidewalk ends without providing equal access for all people to enter or exit the sidewalk.
It is entertaining when one side of the street has curb cuts, but the other does not. There are situations when the sidewalk on one side of the street has curb cuts, but then there not be a curb cut on the other side of the intersection and not be able to continue venturing on the sidewalk; instead, I must travel in the street alongside cars. Another scenario is when I approach the end of the sidewalk and find there is no curb cut, but across the way -- on the other side of the intersection -- there is a beautiful curb cut waiting to be used. This usually leads to me finding a driveway in order to exit the sidewalk or I will completely backtrack all the way back to the previous curb cut where I had entered this section of the sidewalk.
Here in Bellingham, there are many places where the sidewalk ends. On my walks I have encountered the sidewalk end when venturing past the public library. The block of the library has curb cuts, but a block away does not. When walking along State Street there is a bridge; at one end of this bridge, there is not a curb cut, but there is on the other side of the street. When wanting to enter or exit the north side of this bridge, there is a way to do so; at the west side of the bridge, there is a makeshift gravel pathway. This is not the most comfortable pathway, and if a person's wheelchair does not have good traction, I would not recommend this route of travel. There are also multiple neighborhoods that are not completely accessible with curb cut equipped sidewalks. In these neighborhoods, there are blocks that have sidewalks with curb cuts, then a block with out curb cuts, and then stretches without sidewalks at all; I do however prefer roads that do not have sidewalks at all over roads with sidewalks that do not have curb cuts as I do not have to end up backtracking.
Bellingham is not the only place that I have encountered the lack of curb cuts; there are many towns and cities that I have traveled to that have sidewalks that just end. This needs to change. I understand that there is a law that mandates the upgrading of sidewalks only when the road is being updated, but what about the sidewalks that still have not been updated since the law was put into action? Just because the road has not been updated should not mean sidewalks without curb cuts should sit without renovation for years while there are curb cuts being updated that are just fine. It would be amazing to go anywhere in the United States and not have to worry about something as simple as eight inches of concrete standing in my way in continuing on toward my destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment