The Benefits of Wider Sidewalks
I was walking around my neighbourhood of Oaklands the other day with my family and came upon some recent work by the City at Fernwood and Cedar Hill. The work includes a new pedestrian crossing at Ryan Street and some new sidewalks. The thing that struck me most about the new work was the width of the sidewalks. They are over 9 ft or 3 metres. This is great though not at all in line with the regular width in the neighbourhood of 1.5 metres. The thing that immediately struck me is that on this wider space was that it did not feel awkward to walk with just two of us squished up next to each other. We had space to move and if someone had been walking the other direction, we could have easily moved over to allow them to pass. I don’t even think we would have had to go one behind the other. Unfortunately, this new space is very limited and only carries on for a portion of the length of the Jewish Cemetery before it disappears completely. Still, it made me want to once again expound on the benefits of wider sidewalks, something that I have written about before. You can read a couple of those posts here and here. I suppose as it comes as a given with the name of my blog, but I love sidewalks and think that they are actually perhaps one of the most important aspects of our community, at least while we live in a car dominated world (just because I want to give a shout out to shared streets with no sidewalks too like the amazing woonerf that is right by my house).
Introduction: The Foundational Role of Sidewalks in Communities
When we draw cities as kids, and I will say I was guilty of this as well, we would likely have focused on the roadway. Usually a deep black with yellow lines with houses lining it. The sidewalk, in those drawings almost disappears. This is a product of the world we have been living in for the last many decades. When it comes to community though, I think it would be fairly easy to argue that the sidewalk is far more important than the road. The sidewalk is where you most directly see your community; it is where you chat with your neighbours; and where you walk with your family. Good sidewalks make neighbourhoods safer, more accessible; healthier and more economically resilient; and build community and social connection. That is what I will focus on this article.
Boosting Safety and Accessibility for All
A wide sidewalk doesn’t just give you and more room. It also shrinks our streets and makes the space more accommodating to everyone. Adding wider sidewalks to an area is a great way not only to give more space to pedestrians but also to slow down cars. We have seen this happen in lots of places around Victoria in the last few years where a road has been shrunk down, bike lanes have been added and sidewalks widened. That said, I will say too often we see just the bike lanes added with no additional space given over to pedestrians. The now more narrow street makes drivers need to slow down to navigate the space safely and slower cars means safer streets for pedestrians.
Wider sidewalks are not just safer because the cars are going slower though, they also allow for greater use by a larger percent of the population. With a wider sidewalk, especially as indicated by the new short piece in Oaklands, you can have a couple people walking side by side and you can still be easily passed by a runner without having to move over. For people who are blind or using mobility devices a wider sidewalk means greater mobility. This is an area where we are still falling down in Victoria, especially in the neighbourhoods surrounding downtown. In my neighbourhood of Oaklands, the sidewalks are generally only 1.5 metres or 5 feet wide. Not mention many of them are older sidewalks which have lifted in parts creating tripping hazards. I personally think that sidewalks need to be at minimum 2 metres wide and preferably 3 metres. This would create a lot of space for all the potential sidewalk users to be able to move around the city with ease.
Promoting Health and Well-being
The more easily people can move around on sidewalks, will lead to more people actually going out and using sidewalks. If someone’s experience is moving along a narrow sidewalk, not being able to walk next to the person you are out with and having to move over so that anyone can pass going the opposite direction, you are going to less likely to choose that as an option on a regular basis. Creating wide sidewalks will lead to more people choosing to walk to their local store or restaurant rather than getting into their car and driving outside of their neighbourhood.
Walking on a regular basis leads to better physical health and mental well-being. While it should be obvious that moving around is a good for your body, many people don’t equate the slow movement of walking with exercise, but it is. It is also excellent for your mental well-being as you can relax more than you can with other faster forms of mobility. For me there is a real meditative aspect to a long city walk. My walking commutes in the morning allow me to transition from the home to work and start preparing my brain for what will be happening that day.
Economic Resiliency
I spoken about this so many times on this blog and yet there are still too many areas in the city where we have our neighbourhood hubs lined with narrow sidewalks. You can read about this here and here. While wider sidewalks are good for the community as a whole, for neighbourhood hubs it can mean stronger economic resiliency. Walking through a commercial district gives you the opportunity to stop in at any place you see with ease, this is just not possible in a car or even on a bike where you need to find storage for your vehicle before entering. The limitation due to parking means that you will forego stopping on a whim at a shop. It is however, those serendipitous stops where you buy something you didn’t expect to that helps boost the economic resiliency of our neighbourhoods. In the smaller urban villages of our city, being easily walkable is a huge boost for them, and since those businesses tend to be local, a larger proportion of the money stays in the local community.
Wider sidewalks outside of businesses also allow for people to stop comfortably and look in the windows while not blocking the sidewalk. Or have a chat with someone that you have run into. They also can allow, when really wide for the businesses to add signs, seating and products to the street making it a more engaging environment for those walking by.
Fostering Community and Social Connection
Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, talks about the “sidewalk ballet” outside of her apartment in New York. This ballet refers to the constant movement of people on the sidewalk and how it actually form a sort community square for the neighbourhood. This really cannot occur on a narrow five foot sidewalk and I can attest to that. While I know all of my neighbours and will occasionally go and chat with them on the sidewalk, it is not a destination mostly due to its constrained nature. You cannot gather in a group of more than two people really and if anyone is passing by, you need to make room for them.
In neighbourhoods with wide sidewalks, you can build community more easily because people have a place to spend time with each other. Maybe bring a chair out and sit and chat. This leads to more resilient and connected communities and a higher level of safety for the more vulnerable in our society. Jane Jacobs also talks about this in the same section in her book. The greater amount of eyes on the sidewalk means that everyone is watching out for each other.
While this short stretch of new sidewalk is not going to change that area much given that it has been added away form any of the nearby houses, hopefully it is indicative of where the City is going with its plans for sidewalks in the future. That said, I would love to hear what you think about wider sidewalks. Let me know in the comments!
