Walking on Sunshine

... because I'm not always able to walk on the sidewalk.

When we moved to Austin from Lubbock a couple of years ago, I rejoiced in the abundance of sidewalks covering Austin. (Lubbock is not good at sidewalks.) There's one in my neighbourhood and it leads right to the grocery store! Excellent!

I'm almost guaranteed to trip over
these cracks. Good thing the city
fixes them. Source.

And, of course, all good sidewalks require repair, and that's where my trouble starts. You see, a road sign that reads, "Sidewalk Closed. Use other side," does not do me much good when the other side of the street doesn't have a sidewalk, as happened in my neighbourhood over the past few weeks. Or-- even worse-- when a well-used sidewalk on a major street is closed, but to get to the sidewalk on the other side requires crossing busy traffic lanes without the aid of a crosswalk, and then crossing back again to reach the destination.

Yep. Also in my neighbourhood.

And one more: When vegetation growth hangs over the sidewalk, almost to the street, forcing people to walk at the very edge of the sidewalk with only inches of air between them and passing traffic. No prizes for guessing where this gem is.

I do love our sidewalks, and I love them being maintained. I don't love when the public works people forget to make provisions for pedestrians. I get a lot of mileage out of the "Contact Us" page on the Austin website. But most of all, this is just another symptom of suddenly having something I didn't have before: I forget what it was like when my options were to walk in someone's yard or to walk in the street (thanks, City of Lubbock). And I'm glad that I do have at least one more choice now.

So, there you go: Another travail in the car-free life. I realise it sounds like a rant, but it's not intended to rant so much as to cause you to look around and possibly contact your own public works department to demand a good place to walk.

Does your neighbourhood have sidewalks? Do you walk? How could it be better?