What is that black pavement on Davis Street?

 

Recently we finished the work on Davis Street sidewalk.

This project has been discussed in Council Meetings for quite some time. The purpose of this  sidewalk was to give a pedestrian friendly approach to the new walking Trail  extension.

Recently I drove down Davis Street and the above picture illustrates what I saw..

The town euphemistically calls the added pavement a sidewalk, I call it street widening or at best a small breakdown lane.

Dictionary.com describes a "Sidewalk" as follows. 

              "A hard-surfaced path for pedestrians alongside
             and a little higher than a road."

There are several reasons for the elevated nature of a sidewalk but the most important one is safety.  Drivers are aware that if they hit the raised sidewalk they risk damaging their vehicles. This risk keeps vehicles off the sidewalk and makes it much safer for pedestrians.

Placing a rumble strip to delineate the sidewalk will not make pedestrians any safer. It will just signal drivers that they are within a couple feet of the gravel. 

In my humble opinion adding a couple feet in width to a street and calling it a sidewalk is counter productive. It doesn't make pedestrians safer and may even encourage driver to increase their speed thus making it less safe for those walking on the side of the road.

In conclusion I think this is a $30,000 dollar boondoggle.

Sincerely
Joe Hill