
Why Most Pedestrian Infrastructure Is for Drivers - ingve
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/09/07/op-ed-why-most-pedestrian-infrastructure-is-really-for-drivers/
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watersb
YES.

I gave up on cars 20 years ago. Very fortunate that our two year stay in
Florida was right along the Pinellas Trail, but I had to scramble to get the
kids into the elementary school right across the street, rather than the one
four miles away.

They had a big "BIKE TO SCHOOL" event, where they literally required all of
the kids to be dropped off at the shopping center a mile away from us. Think
about how insane that is: We were required to drive the kids and bicycles to a
parking lot, so pickup truck, SUV, or mini(!) van, there's this huge line of
idling engines, as all of the kids and bikes are unpacked, chaperones were
needed to keep the cars from plowing into the kids as they get together in the
parking lot, then they troop on over to the school, then everyone drives over
there to pick up the bikes because there was no provision for storing five
hundred bicycles.

Georgia is like that, too.

We could talk about banks that only have drive-through service, and don't
allow bicycles or pedestrians. Lots of businesses like that now because of
pandemic, but it's just awful in Georgia, Florida, you are in danger unless
you are in a car, and it's your fault for impeding traffic if you get hit.

People think I'm crazy. They destroyed forests and wetlands for parking lots
and big box stores, when the shopping malls were no longer fashionable, and
when the business failed - or worse, was successful - they suffered no
consequences. Didn't have to put the trees back.

There are few things that cause me to feel utter contempt, but this deranged
car thing is pretty much at the top of that short list.

Pinellas Trail: [http://www.pinellastrail.us/](http://www.pinellastrail.us/)

The Pinellas Trail is really nice.

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tricolon
Thanks for sharing. I'm glad I'm not alone.

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AtlasBarfed
E-bikes are the revolution in transportation that was originally promised with
"Ginger"/Segway.

They are still too expensive, but the price will drop as batteries, motors,
and production scales. Once it gets down to 200-300 bucks for a foldable bike
with a 25mph top speed and a 50-100 mile range, IMO things will take off.

Pedestrian infrastructure is still a waste in America unfortunately. Americans
are simply too sessile. What should probably be optimized is the ebike
infrastructure, and pedestrians can be a fairly safe afterthought in that type
of infrastructure.

I really hope Boring company takes off, it would be great to move most major
"stroads" into tunnels.

