Author: Emily McMaster

Wide, unobstructed, well-maintained sidewalks with no gaps or dead ends are the best infrastructure communities of all sizes can invest in. From urban to suburban to rural areas, sidewalks provide democratic, inexpensive access to transit, parks, jobs, education, and all aspects of daily living.

Yet many communities — even in denser, urban areas — lack these much-needed networks. Dallas is “missing more than 2,000 miles of sidewalk,” while Denver went viral last summer when TikTok account @PedestrianDignity began cataloguing its crumbling, inadequate, or nonexistent walkways. The city launched a mobility plan in 2018 to address the fact that 10 percent of its streets lack sidewalks, while 30 percent can’t support wheelchairs, according to nonprofit WalkDenver.

The new bipartisan infrastructure law offers critical opportunities to solve these issues through initiatives like the reformed Transportation Alternatives Program and the recently launched Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, which will dedicate $200 million a year in grants to connect walking and biking routes with destinations and other transportation options. As decision makers across the country create plans for federal funding, I spoke to planning and pedestrian experts to learn why the humble sidewalk is one of the best investments a community can make — and what we need to do to make them work for everyone.

1. HEALTH BENEFITS AGES 8 TO 80

When it comes to health’s “magic pill,” Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities, points to active transportation.

“The answer is getting around by walking, crutches, wheelchair — I don’t care how you move, but you need to move about in ways other than using a car. It’s also very crucial to mental health,” he says. “The only places where large amounts of people walk at least five days a week are those with the infrastructure to support walking, biking, transit, and mobility for people with disabilities.”

Importantly, Penalosa advocates for well-built sidewalks in suburban towns and rural villages, too, not just urban areas. He notes that even areas without much density might still have bus routes that rely on sidewalk connectivity.

“There are studies that show that when [aging residents] lose their driving privileges, it is as traumatic as a cancer diagnosis. Because in so many cities, the car is the only way to be mobile and make a doctor’s appointment or grocery run,” he says. “In walkable cities with transit, losing a car doesn’t mean losing your friends, your stores, your places you’ve gone all your life.”

2. LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR ALL

“Sidewalk connectivity is essential for people with disabilities, but it’s also just a great way of leveling the playing field for all marginalized people,” says Heidi Johnson-Wright, a renowned inclusive design expert who has been an Americans with Disabilities Act resource for large urban governments. She’s currently co-teaching a groundbreaking universal design course at the University of Miami School of Architectu

re with me.

She’s spent an entire week of the course focusing on sidewalks, complete streets, properly aligned curb ramps, and safe harbor medians to underscore their value — and what’s at stake when they aren’t properly designed and maintained. A curb ramp fails to function if it constantly floods, for example, and a crosswalk becomes perilous if drainage basins are placed where wheelchair tires can get stuck in them.

“My students now grasp that if one link in the chain is broken, safe mobility fails for all,” says Johnson-Wright, who uses a wheelchair for mobility. She laments that cars parked over sidewalks for days are rarely ticketed in her experience. “That unwillingness to ensure safety forces me into streets and into the path of dangerous drivers in a region that consistently leads the nation in pedestrian deaths and serious injuries.”