Would you build a street without sidewalks?
Riffing off yesterday’s post about our need to prioritize non-motorized transport over motorized, I thought of a parallel situation that might help make things a bit more clear about the obvious need to provide dedicated space for cyclists — namely, the title of this post:
Would you build a street without sidewalks?
No.
To build a street, or rebuild a street, without sidewalks would be crazy, or 1950s America, or third world, or worse. It’s just unthinkable — at least for ‘livable streets’-type folks — to consider building a street today without at least pedestrian access. And that, generally speaking, means sidewalks.
No matter what the actual implementation, however — be it sidewalks or some other form of traffic calming/shared space/etc. — most of us would agree that we should allow people to walk on a particular street — whether a new street, or a street being redesigned — and they should be able to walk safely, comfortably, directly to their destination, and be able to hold onto their dignity while they do it. The same should apply for cyclists.
If you would not build a road/street/bridge/tunnel without sidewalks or special accommodations for pedestrians, then you should not build a road/street/bridge/tunnel without cycletracks or special accommodations for cyclists.
Update: Pedestrians need sidewalks, cyclists need cycletracks — it’s not complicated.
Update: Articles like this do a good job of arguing for sidewalks, but they don’t ever – to my knowledge – address the need for cycletracks. We need to make that automatic.
