Travel in Concord, NH is best achieved by automobile.
How do you travel in Concord, NH? What safe and reasonable options do you have for getting around? Can you walk, bicycle or take transit? Can you drive - most likely driving is the most practical option of choice, for those who can.The winter weather provides an interesting time to examine transportation options, and I challenge you to a thought experiment. As you get around town consider if you can do so without your car or truck. Can you safely navigate the sidewalks by foot? Can you get around using a wheel chair, crutches or cane? Can you use a bicycle? Does a bus trip work for you?
In my neighborhood winter storms turn the sidewalks into storage places for snow. My neighbors and I do our best to clear our sidewalks so they are passable and safe. We keep one end of the street passable but the driveway snow plows tend to close up the other end, making the sidewalk impassable to pedestrians. So in winter many around here end up walking in the street. When the sidewalk plows come to "clear" the sidewalks, the salt laden snow of the street lands in the lawn, preventing all but the most salt tolerant (crab) grass to grow. I am told by the operators, they must clear a sufficient path for wheel chair access of the sidewalks, a considerate goal. Salt is often left behind to increase the salt load.
Consider the sidewalks you see as you travel the city, after a snowfall has been "cleared". Could you safely walk on the inches of snow which are left by the equipment? Federally funded sidewalks are required to be maintained to the same level as the streets. The streets are generally scraped clear within 24 hours after a storm. The sidewalks are "cleared" typically several days later, and are left with a layer of snow/salt/slush. If this refreezes it can become pretty slippery and impassable. Perhaps, few sidewalks are made with federal dollars, so the same level of service is not required - I doubt this. Pedestrians are left with limited choices: 1. Walk in the street; 2. Get in a car and limit walking.
The city has a comprehensive transportation policy which is intended to promote transportation choice, yet the built infrastructure really only promotes automotive travel. Our sidewalks are in general placed right next to the road without a buffer, and become the storage place for snow. The city is responsible for clearing the sidewalks, but in reality the process leaves little choice but for pedestrians to walk in the streets. Could there be a better way?
[Photos taken 3/26/2013 one week after the 3/19/2013 snow storm]
Where I grew up in the Midwest most all sidewalks have a buffer to the street to provide winter snow storage, and a place for the shade trees which thrive, giving relief and restoring oxygen to the air. Each resident is required to clear their sidewalk within 24 hours of a snowfall. This distributed responsibility results in excellent pedestrian access around the city.
Engineering could design sidewalks with a sufficient border to the street to store snow in the winter. These areas would also be the natural place to plant trees - not ornamental trees the city and overhead utilities are fond of - real shade trees, which would shade both the sidewalk, and the street,
As Concord finalizes the "Complete Streets" design for Main Street, I am disappointed in the result which continues to focus on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation, to dominate the landscape. There are alternatives which would truly provide people choice to arrive downtown but these options have been dismissed.
I have shared thoughts, concepts and ideas in this blog, testimony and in conversations, which I believe would help Concord really prepare for entering the 21st century with multi-modal choices for transportation and livability. My latest entry in the Concord Patch (Main Street Fails Complete Streets for TIGER Grant Funding) expresses many of my concerns about the direction of the city in this project. The project does not encourage transportation choice or encourage livability within the downtown. Instead it secures the suburban nature of transportation in Concord.
The City has launched a new web site which effectively breaks many of the links to information which you may be interested in, of this blog as well as the above mentioned Patch article. I regret that I will not search the new site to make these corrections. You will need to search the city web site or request the documents yourself, if you are so moved. The cynic in me imagines the new site will quiet voices which may want to locate information and previous links, to hold the city accountable to their policies and the TIGER application which promises a complete streets design. Access to these documents may illuminate details which are contrary to the desires of the powers that be.
I prefer a city with increased livability, to that of suburbanization. How about you?
Update 3/21/2013
Check the City Document Center: Engineering/TIGER 2012; Engineering/Construction Projects. Main Street is CIP 460.In the March 8, 2013 City Manager Weekly Newsletter was the following notice:
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOLThe City of Concord and the Concord Safe Route to School Committee would like to ask for the public’s help in creating a safe winter walking environment for Concord’s school children.
* Please keep the sidewalks around your home clear of debris and vehicles so that City plows can get through.
* Do not pile or plow snow onto sidewalks. This forces children into the street and is in violation of a City ordinance.
* If you are willing and able, please help out by clearing the sidewalk nearyour home.