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I get your point, but Paris is a very different situation. Most of the wide roads there have something that separates the pedestrians from the vehicles, such as two way bike lanes, dedicated parallel parking sections, or some landscaping barrier. The Champs-Élysées is like 10 lanes wide but is very pleasant to walk on. This street in First Hill is not. I'm not against wide streets in urban areas as long as they are designed well and to accommodate non-vehicle travel.
Wildly off-topic but…
Years ago, I was walking down the Champs Elysees with a Brit sales VP. He asked me, “Why did they plant all the trees along the Champs Elysees?” Answer: “So the Germans can March in the shade.”
I like the leafy part of Denver with the older suburban homes around Washington Park. It appeals to my New England sensibilities. Most of Denver isn’t like that. The sprawl is an awful lot of cheap housing tossed up in the prairie. Seattle is so wet that anything that is clear cut for development has big trees 25 years later.
I don’t have much experience with Seattle outside downtown and a few surrounding neighborhoods so that’s interesting. But I was moreso wondering about Denver because I can’t really think of too many places I’ve seen that don’t have sidewalks within the city.
It's spotty - doesn't seem to be an issue downtown or Capitol Hill, but when I lived on the eastside it was a frustrating (and common) thing:
16th and Spruce Syracuse St (people ended up walking in the bike lane once they striped it, which added a whole new level of conflict)
Even where I live now on the northside, I've noticed on my runs that the sidewalk just stops in several places:
In conclusion, it's a thing; feel lucky you live in a part of town that doesn't have this issue. And similar to the poster talking about this issue in Seattle, Denver's strategy seems to be just waiting for the property to be re-developed, and putting the onus on the builder/developer to add a sidewalk. See RiNo as an example - I can remember a time when a lot of blocks over there had no sidewalk, but since the infill of apartments & new commercial buildings, that problem has been (mostly) remedied.
Syracuse St (people ended up walking in the bike lane once they striped it, which added a whole new level of conflict)
That's so weird. I've never seen a street before (outside of 6-lane suburban thoroughfares and roads in undeveloped forested areas) that has no sidewalks but has bike lanes.
That's so weird. I've never seen a street before (outside of 6-lane suburban thoroughfares) that has no sidewalks but has bike lanes.
It's strange, right!? It came down to cost - it was controversial too because the neighborhood has been asking for the city to complete the sidewalk network for years (since way before it was gentrifying), and when they re-paved Syracuse this was kind of a cheap(er) add-on to placate people. I believe the infill of walks is part of the 'East Area Plan', but to my knowledge the city hasn't installed any of those missing teeth to date.
I support adding bike lanes anywhere and everywhere sidewalks exist, but IMO what they should've done here was create a multi-use path for both peds/bikes, and marked it as such. That's what it's become anyway, albeit a more dangerous one.
Last edited by boomtown boi; 11-12-2021 at 02:06 PM..
I’m not crazy about the high and dry climate, but it probably beats the alternative.
I’ve been living in Colorado for 4 years now, Denver for 1 of those years. I know people have strong opinions either way, but I feel pretty neutral still. Some days I love it, others, not so sure. I guess that’s probably how it’s like everywhere
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And similar to the poster talking about this issue in Seattle, Denver's strategy seems to be just waiting for the property to be re-developed, and putting the onus on the builder/developer to add a sidewalk. See RiNo as an example - I can remember a time when a lot of blocks over there had no sidewalk, but since the infill of apartments & new commercial buildings, that problem has been (mostly) remedied.
