Dangerous Road Infrastructure Makes Us Blind to Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors
This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Strong Towns member Will Gardner’s Substack, StrongHaven. It is shared here with permission. In-line images were provided by the writer.
(Source: Oregon Department of Transportation on Flickr.)
Do you see them?
The kid coming home from middle school, waiting forever for the walk signal after pressing the beg button. The person using a walker on the side of the road because there’s no sidewalk.
As you drive through town, do you notice them?
The woman, looking tired after a long day’s work, sitting in the hot sun as she waits for the bus. The guy making his commute on an electric scooter.
When you do see them, what do you think?
If you’re like I was and your primary experience of your town is from behind the wheel of a car, you probably don’t notice them at all. If you do see them, you might pity them for their station in life or judge them for their unenviable situation of being outside of a car. Maybe, as some of my neighbors on Facebook suggest, those old-timers on e-bikes lost their licenses because of DUIs. Maybe you’re an avid cyclist who doesn’t understand why that woman on a bike doesn’t just don lycra and a helmet and brave the traffic like you. Why is that guy riding his wheelchair on the road, anyway? Doesn’t he know that’s dangerous?
Who Are These People, Anyway?
It’s a fair guess to say that at least 30% of people in my town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, lack a driver’s license or otherwise can’t drive. 7.3% of households (over 500) do not have a car, and about 36% (over 2,500) of households have only one car, meaning that households with multiple members have to share.
According to Anna Zivarts in "When Driving is Not an Option," disabled people are four times more likely to be nondrivers. Many seniors, regardless of whether they have a defined disability, will lose their ability to drive. Or maybe they can’t afford car ownership. When you include things like gas, insurance, maintenance and registration on top of a monthly payment, the average monthly cost of owning a car in the U.S. is upward of $1,000. Or maybe they’re young. While some of my suburban neighbors may think that kids are incapable of traveling independently, kids’ ability to get around in environments like ours is enabled or impeded by the infrastructure we have, as Zivarts points out in her book.
The people you see from your windshield are probably a small fraction of those who can’t or don’t drive in your town. If we usually don’t see the folks walking by the side of the road, we definitely miss those who aren’t out there. They’re the ones getting by as best they can, relying on friends and relatives to give them rides. Or worse, they’re stuck at home. For seniors, being homebound in this way increases their risk for falls, the top reason for calls to emergency services.
If you’re like I was, your failure to adequately see nondrivers is not willful or malevolent. I’ll extend the same grace to my town officials and elected leaders. This past year, the Fairhaven Planning Board approved a new Starbucks on the corner of Route 6 and Alden. All of the relevant departments signed off on the site plan. None of them insisted, as would have been their right, that the developer put in a sidewalk in front of the place. This contradicts the Complete Streets policy the town signed only a few years ago:
All private developments and related road design elements or corresponding road-related elements including but not limited to connections to the town's transportation network shall also comply with Complete Street principles and this policy and should demonstrate compliance to the extent feasible and practical during the local review and approval process.
When someone in the site review meeting mentioned sidewalks, the project engineer said it wouldn’t be possible to both have sidewalks and to preserve the mature trees on the site (these trees died anyway when they regraded the site). Someone else in the meeting noted that there is no sidewalk continuing north on Alden, so any sidewalk for the Starbucks would end north of the property. When I asked the developer why there was no sidewalk, he told me he had tried to add one into the design, but the town road layout and grade difference on the property wouldn’t allow it. It’s certainly not on the developer to advocate for an expensive change like adding a sidewalk, which would also require the town to change its road.
There’s nothing nefarious on the part of anyone here. It’s just that, in the minds of the decision-makers, a sidewalk on a town street is an add-on. They’re likely thinking that no one really uses sidewalks along stroads anyway, so why ask the developer to spend the money? These likely aren’t conscious thoughts. They’re just the result of a bit of blindness. Our nondrivers are out of sight, so they tend to be out of mind for decision-makers as well. This blindness has consequences that play out in our streets.
The Premortem
A year from now, what happens when that kid on his way home from school decides to swing by Starbucks to grab a Unicorn Frappuccino? After waiting forever for the signal to cross (and possibly just giving up and crossing against the light), he turns onto Alden Road toward the new Starbucks. The SUV turning north on Alden is accelerating, making up for lost time after waiting at the light. They don’t see the kid on the bike. The news will report on whether or not the kid was wearing a helmet and/or bright clothing. It will note whether or not the driver stayed at the scene. Barring any gross negligence, the ensuing investigation will call the whole thing an unfortunate accident. Facebook commenters will decry drivers these days or scold the kids who ride on roads.
If the incident is fatal and there’s enough of an outcry, the town will reach out to the regional planning agencies, which might initiate a yearlong study and lean on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to install a sign or another blinking light. Maybe someone will suggest… (sigh)… pedflags.
Wave the flag that says “I give up, our infrastructure sucks!” (Source: Radio NWTN)
The driver will claim that they didn’t see the kid biking on the side of the road, and they won’t be lying. All of the cues in their environment assured them that they didn’t have to look for him. And long before the driver failed to see this kid, many other people — leaders with a duty to the public — failed to see him, too.
A Better Vision
The many nondrivers in our communities don’t need another branded program or special grant that rolls in every few years. They don’t need to answer another online survey supporting another master plan destined to gather dust on a successor’s shelf. They don’t want or need to take away what the rest of us, who tend to be more privileged, have. They just need us to see them.
To my officials and representatives at Fairhaven Town Hall and the Board of Public Works: Your work is increasingly challenging and difficult. You’re faced with tough tradeoffs on a daily basis as you serve our town. It is, therefore, with deep respect for what you do that I ask this of you: As you review every site plan, prioritize maintenance to our streets and commit resources to our infrastructure, start by asking yourself, "Will this increase the safety and comfort of our most vulnerable neighbors, or will it further discourage or endanger them?" When we start there, we’re all better off for it.
And to everyone else: The next time you’re driving on a stroad, look for the people traveling outside of their cars. Ask yourself, "What kind of environment does our town give them? What would I want it to be like if it was me out there?"
Will Gardner is an education consultant and the founder of Alma del Mar Charter Schools. He’s currently scheming about how to improve his town, but he’s happy to help you with whatever you’re working on. You can find him at StrongHaven.substack.com.
