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I agree. It makes no sense. Such a nice town. How do kids walk to school?
Oh for God's sake, as we said on here already, kids have been walking to school on New Jersey streets without sidewalks forever, and most of us managed to make it to adulthood alive and without missing limbs. The only person I ever knew who was hit by a car was my sister. She was on the corner down the street from her school, on a street with sidewalks, and she'd started to cross the street because she was taught that people put their blinkers on to make a turn and the guy didn't have his on so she thought he was going straight. He turned without slowing down and ran over my sister (she was hospitalized for a month). But where we actually lived, there were no sidewalks.
I'm not saying the OP shouldn't go for a neighborhood with sidewalks if she really feels more comfortable. But I don't get the dramatic gasps of horror at the idea of kids walking on streets that have no sidewalks. It's your job to teach them to be careful and to be always aware of their surroundings. What will your kids do if they find themselves facing a sidewalk-less street as an adult. Stop, confused, unable to proceed further? Hehehe
Besides, I'd bet anything that the kids will be driven to school anyway, sidewalks or no sidewalks.
In spite of where this post has headed, I'm going to buy a house on a block with no sidewalks so my kids can grow up tough in the face of danger like the rough old days! It'll help build character, and maybe they also won't grow up to be a bunch of spoiled, entitled, selfish, naive, lazy and sheltered dimwits who are incapable of existing without a cellphone and elbow pads.
The thread title is way off from the truth. The area towards Alpine proper is the area with the most problems concerning lack of sidewalks (but this has more to do with the hilly topography) but by and large most of the town has sidewalks. I can tell you right now the areas towards Bergenfield and Englewood with few exceptions do have sidewalks.
This thread reminded me of a story my father used to tell us. As most of you know, Radburn (Fair Lawn) was the first planned community in the United States. Architects still learn about Radburn in school. It was called "A Town For The Motor Age". The community was designed so that the fronts of the houses face one of three parks. There are sidewalks around the parks. The idea was that children would never have to walk on a street to get to school. Remember, this is in 1929 and cars are new, but numerous enough that they are starting to be a concern.
My father remembered that in the first year Radburn was inhabited, a car mowed down and killed some kid. He was around ten years old and that story always stuck with him.
Thank you for posting this article from LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA in the New Jersey forum to make your point. A point which is misleading since you have told everyone here on the New Jersey forum to open their wallets for a contentious project in Lancaster, PA.
So how did that sidewalk with relatively new Belgian block curbing on Washington St. in Tenafly help prevent those middle school kids from getting struck by the Lexus SUV which that woman was carefully parking?
And datdood101, you are correct. The majority of streets in Tenafly have sidewalks. The OP likely selected one of the few streets that do not. But as I pointed out earlier, there could be many legitimate reasons why that particular street (and others in Tenafly and other communities) does not have sidewalks. Hilly topography isn't typically the reason, though, considering that sidewalks can usually be laid on a steep incline.
Or perhaps the street is situated in one of Tenafly's "historic" districts. If that's the case, forget about anything on the street getting changed
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Mandatory Sidewalks.
