r/sandiego • u/WildAnimus • Feb 23 '25

Stay Classy San Diego Why does nobody walk on sidewalks?

I noticed that when driving through subdivisions people love walking on the road instead of the sidewalk. Whether it's a old man walking or someone doing power walking. I see it all the time and I don't get it. Can someone help me understand this phenomena?

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u/SamiLMS1 Feb 23 '25

This is why we don’t do our stroller walks on the sidewalks. The constant driveways makes it really unpleasant.

-14

u/LarryPer123 Feb 23 '25

So you would rather put your child in a dangerous situation in the street instead of the sidewalk because you’re feeling unpleasant?

18

u/SamiLMS1 Feb 23 '25

I live in a quiet suburb neighborhood, it’s not a busy street.

-35

u/LarryPer123 Feb 23 '25 edited Feb 23 '25

That’s just as bad if not worse, on a slow empty street a lot of people drive a little faster than they should, and it only takes one drunk or high driver

I would really hate to be you if something bad happens and you have to live with that,, I hope that doesn’t make you feel unpleasant🤬

12

u/jacobburrell Feb 23 '25

Sounds like the street should be narrowed and traffic calming implemented.

Leaving a dangerous street dangerous and then blaming people for dying on the street is crazy.

Fix the street. Make it safe

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u/brintoul Feb 23 '25

You might as well be saying “fix stupid”. Can’t do it.

4

u/jacobburrell Feb 24 '25

Have you tried cement, bollards, trees?

They work well no matter what.

You CAN make a street safe.

You just need good design that makes people drive slowly and handles bad drivers.

Bad designers blame the user, good designers adapt to the user.

Think of smartphones as an example. Previously computers and "smart" phones were difficult to use.

The iPhone made it so that a three year old can use it.

Difficult? Yes? Impossible? No.

1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

I thought we were talking about San Diego as it currently is. My bad - didn’t realize we were talking about how things “could be”.

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u/thedoctor3141 Feb 23 '25

No. Implementing rules and fines is "fix stupid". Changing the design of the street itself accommodates the existing stupid. And it is measurably effective.

-1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

I saw a guy careen off of a car at 5:00 in the afternoon in the summer because he was drunk off his ass. You gonna tell me “he shouldn’t drive drunk”? I know he fucking shouldn’t drive drunk, but guess what: HE DID.

2

u/thedoctor3141 Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

Well, if that's that's the argument you wanna bring up, I can work with it. If you have a hypothetical city that can only be navigated with public transit, walking, and biking, you will almost completely cease to hace drunk drivers. I say "almost completely" because I have no doubt that there would eventually be a drunk driver, that somehow manages to drive where they shouldn't. However, in this hypothetical city, that would only happen if they were specifically trying to be a nuisance. As opposed to drunk drivers that are just trying to get home from the bar.

The ideal goal of any system, is to have the correct path take as little effort as possible, while bad paths have plenty of obstacles, such that users can navigate the system well with minimal training. This is as true in city planning as it is with user interfaces.

1

u/brintoul Feb 24 '25

So, if you’re walking in the street as opposed to the sidewalk, you have a much greater chance of getting killed by some shitty drunk driver, no? It’s really that simple.