Why Most Pedestrian Infrastructure Is for Drivers

YES.

I gave up on cars 20 years ago. Very fortunate that our two year stay in Florida was right along the Pinellas Trail, but I had to scramble to get the kids into the elementary school right across the street, rather than the one four miles away.

They had a big "BIKE TO SCHOOL" event, where they literally required all of the kids to be dropped off at the shopping center a mile away from us. Think about how insane that is: We were required to drive the kids and bicycles to a parking lot, so pickup truck, SUV, or mini(!) van, there's this huge line of idling engines, as all of the kids and bikes are unpacked, chaperones were needed to keep the cars from plowing into the kids as they get together in the parking lot, then they troop on over to the school, then everyone drives over there to pick up the bikes because there was no provision for storing five hundred bicycles.

Georgia is like that, too.

We could talk about banks that only have drive-through service, and don't allow bicycles or pedestrians. Lots of businesses like that now because of pandemic, but it's just awful in Georgia, Florida, you are in danger unless you are in a car, and it's your fault for impeding traffic if you get hit.

People think I'm crazy. They destroyed forests and wetlands for parking lots and big box stores, when the shopping malls were no longer fashionable, and when the business failed - or worse, was successful - they suffered no consequences. Didn't have to put the trees back.

There are few things that cause me to feel utter contempt, but this deranged car thing is pretty much at the top of that short list.

Pinellas Trail: http://www.pinellastrail.us/

The Pinellas Trail is really nice.

E-bikes are the revolution in transportation that was originally promised with "Ginger"/Segway.

They are still too expensive, but the price will drop as batteries, motors, and production scales. Once it gets down to 200-300 bucks for a foldable bike with a 25mph top speed and a 50-100 mile range, IMO things will take off.

Pedestrian infrastructure is still a waste in America unfortunately. Americans are simply too sessile. What should probably be optimized is the ebike infrastructure, and pedestrians can be a fairly safe afterthought in that type of infrastructure.

I really hope Boring company takes off, it would be great to move most major "stroads" into tunnels.