Sidewalks

[billski]

While I'm on a roll, here's a town budget-cutter. I suggest they discontinue sidewalk maintenance. Here's why.

In my town, the only sidewalks pedestrians use are those within close proximity of schools and right downtown, in front of the stores. The rest of the time, they are all in the road. We have sidewalks all over town that never get used.

I've seen the PC police make a big stink out of a broken sidewalk, the dpw spends 10s, maybe 100s of K$ to fix it, and then nobody uses it.

 

[ERJ-145CA]

At least you don't live in Jersey, in most municipalities it is the homeowner's responsibility to maintain the sidewalk in front of his/her house. This obviously include repairs and snow removal.

 

[drjeff]

While I'm on a roll, here's a town budget-cutter. I suggest they discontinue sidewalk maintenance. Here's why.

In my town, the only sidewalks pedestrians use are those within close proximity of schools and right downtown, in front of the stores. The rest of the time, they are all in the road. We have sidewalks all over town that never get used.

I've seen the PC police make a big stink out of a broken sidewalk, the dpw spends 10s, maybe 100s of K$ to fix it, and then nobody uses it.

And the first time some kid trips over a crack in the sidewalk while texting away on their cellphone and falls and breaks their leg and then their overweight, oportunistic Mom & Dad sue the town for 10 million for "pain suffering" and "mental trauma" and lost wages since 4'8" 225lb 10 year old little Johnny was obviously going to be the greatest pro athelete ever, they'll send a DPW employee down to Home Depot and buy a truck load of Quickcrete for a heck of a lot less $$

 

[RootDKJ]

Hmmm, my street doesn't have sidewalks.

 

[playoutside]

Where I live in NJ there are no sidewalks. We're lucky the road gets plowed within 24 hrs of the storm.

Where I live in MA it's owner responsibilty to shovel and maintain sidewalks.

As a sometimes commuter who uses the sidewalks in MA, there are lots of stretches where its easier and safer to walk in the street...that's saying something with so many people preoccupied with other crap while driving. Walking on sidewalks after a snow storm is virtually impossible...some shovel (thank you), some don't, others shovel and create a massive wall between their property and the next (kind of impossible to scale these snow mountains in work clothes).

 

[marcski]

At least you don't live in Jersey, in most municipalities it is the homeowner's responsibility to maintain the sidewalk in front of his/her house. This obviously include repairs and snow removal.

Not such a bad idea. In this way, the burden is on the homeowner to repair the sidewalks....as well as liability for any accidents. Also, the homeowner is likely to have a homeowner's insurance policy so the the insurance company will ultimately bear the burden of indemnifying any potential recovery...whereas a lot of municipalities are self-insured so the liability will ultimately be on the taxpayers.

 

[bigbog]

I usually try to blow my section of sidewalk...a lane down from the property line. Neighbors(either side) often don't get to it, along with others on street, so my path will often begin a sidewalk at my property's edge. When plow does the street(wide, but residential) I have to get up/down the sidewalk to cut the top of the mountain down in order to see up/down the street when exiting the driveway with the low-lying 92' Accord, so it's helpful to do it even if the neighbors aren't always in step with me...