Sidewalks (Minneapolis: cul-de-sac, neighborhood, subdivision)

[1stpontiac]

I know it gets mentioned in passing in other threads, but I find it sort of fanscinating that the outer suburbs have no sidewalks in residential areas. So I'm curious and would be interested to hear from anyone living in that type of neighborhood...How do you get about without sidewalks?

I know the suburbs are car-centric, but I can't believe entire towns are filled with people who don't go outside, so do you (a) drive to a park/trail system and go from there, (b) walk on the street itself, (c) walk on lawns, or (d) something else?

Just curious since I've never lived anywhere without suburbs. You can consider this a little sociologic inquiry.

[demtion35]

Less to shovel snow then, but Superior Wisconson in some parts of that city do not have sidewalks either

[1stpontiac]

Originally Posted by demtion35

Less to shovel snow then, but Superior Wisconson in some parts of that city do not have sidewalks either

Hadn't thought about that, I suppose that's one advantage!

[Mark_22]

I've lived in the city and the suburbs (and I think I'm the only one on all of City-Data that likes both). Suburban streets are typically wider and don't usually have many cars parked on them, so in residential areas it's pretty safe just to walk on the streets. I assume these suburbs don't install sidewalks so they don't have to pay to maintain them.

[North Beach Person]

Also, some communities don't have walks in order to discourage non-residents from "visiting". Besides, in a typical cul-de-sac style subdivision where exactly would the people be walking to?

[golfgal]

I live in a suburb and we have sidewalks and bike paths everywhere.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

The most frustrating thing about suburbs without sidewalks is the ones that pretend to have sidewalks. You start walking somewhere, then all of a sudden the sidewalk disappears and you're by a road where pedestrians are "banned." And you're basically stranded.

Happened to me once - not in Minnesota, although suburbs are pretty much the same everywhere (More often in Minneapolis suburbs, I'd be allowed to walk places, I'd just be in constant fear of looming death). Here in PA, I took the train out to a nice, dense, peaceful small town in the suburbs, just to explore, and had a specific destination I wanted to walk to, about one mile away. Walked 1/2 a mile, the road ended, and turned into an entrance ramp for a limited access highway. It was literally the only way to my destination. So I turned around, walked back to the train station, waited 20 minutes for a bus, and took said bus to where I wanted to go. The bus wound up going the same way I was going to walk, and probably after 1/10th of a mile the limited access highway turned into a normal big suburban strip street with sidewalks that appeared and disappeared.

So frustrating. I can't imagine living somewhere that bans you from walking to a popular destination one mile away. In this case, I was attempting to walk from Bridgeport, PA to the King of Prussia Mall. I didn't care too much about the mall - Bridgeport is a nice small town I wanted to see, and the Mall was just a destination, it's about as big as the MOA.

What an insane way to live your life - being banned from walking somewhere about a mile away. I lived my teenage years like that, but after living in cities (first Minneapolis, now Philly) the past couple of years, I often forget that places exist like that, and if I take a train or bus trip out to the suburbs just to explore and see something different, I get caught stranded and off guard. And then I'm happy and relaxed to be back in the city when I get back, where I can go wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go, without owning a car, and I'm happy to be part of a civilization again.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Mark_22

I've lived in the city and the suburbs (and I think I'm the only one on all of City-Data that likes both). Suburban streets are typically wider and don't usually have many cars parked on them, so in residential areas it's pretty safe just to walk on the streets. I assume these suburbs don't install sidewalks so they don't have to pay to maintain them.

What he said. Walking down the side of the street has never felt unsafe in small suburbs where I have lived. Just the main/busy roads have sidewalks. The street that I grew up on would probably have somewhere from 0 - 1 cars pass daily that didn't live on that street. We could play in the middle of the road for most of the day without much to worry about.

[1stpontiac]

Just walk in the streets was what I was guessing the answer would be. I've never lived in a city large enough to really have suburbs, so I'd never really considered it before.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by FamousBlueRaincoat

The most frustrating thing about suburbs without sidewalks is the ones that pretend to have sidewalks. You start walking somewhere, then all of a sudden the sidewalk disappears and you're by a road where pedestrians are "banned." And you're basically stranded.

Happened to me once - not in Minnesota, although suburbs are pretty much the same everywhere (More often in Minneapolis suburbs, I'd be allowed to walk places, I'd just be in constant fear of looming death). Here in PA, I took the train out to a nice, dense, peaceful small town in the suburbs, just to explore, and had a specific destination I wanted to walk to, about one mile away. Walked 1/2 a mile, the road ended, and turned into an entrance ramp for a limited access highway. It was literally the only way to my destination. So I turned around, walked back to the train station, waited 20 minutes for a bus, and took said bus to where I wanted to go. The bus wound up going the same way I was going to walk, and probably after 1/10th of a mile the limited access highway turned into a normal big suburban strip street with sidewalks that appeared and disappeared.

So frustrating. I can't imagine living somewhere that bans you from walking to a popular destination one mile away. In this case, I was attempting to walk from Bridgeport, PA to the King of Prussia Mall. I didn't care too much about the mall - Bridgeport is a nice small town I wanted to see, and the Mall was just a destination, it's about as big as the MOA.

What an insane way to live your life - being banned from walking somewhere about a mile away. I lived my teenage years like that, but after living in cities (first Minneapolis, now Philly) the past couple of years, I often forget that places exist like that, and if I take a train or bus trip out to the suburbs just to explore and see something different, I get caught stranded and off guard. And then I'm happy and relaxed to be back in the city when I get back, where I can go wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go, without owning a car, and I'm happy to be part of a civilization again.

I can't think of one road where you are banned from walking. The only place I know that it is illegal is on interstates. Where were you walking that was banned??