I just did a Google Street View of 1797 Mt Vernon Rd. Went back to 2011. There was no curb then, either. The pavement ended at the edge of the cement. And there was no sidewalk at all on the southside of the street. So people couldn't walk on that side. See the attached photo. The sidewalks were just installed over the past few months. So now people can walk on the south side of the street. There is also a landscape buffer between the end of the cement edging and the newly-installed sidewalks. In addition, the city will be re-striping the pavement and adding a 4-ft bike lane, acting as a paved shoulder and providing 5-6 feet between the edge of the sidewalk and motor vehicles.

That is the most saddening response. I believe the idea of adding new sidewalks was to improve our city and not to waste tax money. Distance from traffic to the sidewalk is not real protection from vehicular traffic. In fact, there is a reason why the standard curb height is 6". The new sidewalk project has lots of ADA violations and proves how poorly conceived this project was. If the city ever comes back to fix the curbs the sidewalks would have to come out and spend thousands redoing them and backfilling to match curb grades. This should have been done this time around.

The recent paving removed and replaced the asphalt to the same depth that it was prior to the project. More distance between the sidewalk and the travel lane does provide a wider recovery zone for cars that leave the lane. Curbs may give a sense of protection to pedestrians but in reality they would not stop a vehicle leaving the roadway at speeds above 25 mph.

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