I live in a decent size apartment complex, with roads sprawling through a network of trees and brush. There are lots of roads. Major thoroughfares from one end of the complex to the other, and lesser ones that lead straight to apartment buildings.
One thing my apartment complex does not have is sidewalks. Sure there are slabs of concrete dumped in a straight shot from parking lot to building door. But that's it. Do you need to walk to the bus stop? The mailbox down the road? Even to the office to drop off your rent check? Well, you have two options. You can stroll down the road where cars zip by at 40mph, or across the uneven ground in your business shoes and hope there's no dog shit hiding in the brush.
I always though the lack of sidewalks was a strange design. That's not to say this is the first complex I've lived in with a stunning lack of them. I guess the assumption is that people drive in and out of apartment complexes, but they certainly don't walk anywhere. I'd like to say that's not true for most people, but I honestly don't know what the statistical breakdown would be and if having more sidewalks would mean more people use them, or no difference in pedestrian traffic at all.
For me, I would have loved for there to have been sidewalks put in while they were building this place. But perhaps it's just as well. The drivers coming down one of the roads have a difficult time staying on the pavement. Over the last year I've witnessed a succession of lampposts and signs mowed down by runaway vehicles (or possibly dinosaurs, you never know).
I'm sure this is mostly fueled by annoyance that I'm constantly dodging near-hits while crossing the street downtown on my lunch break, simply because drivers are unaware of the concept of pedestrians. Or maybe their surroundings in general.
Ok, rant off.
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