Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Damp Driving Texas Roads With No Sidewalks & Dangerous Telephone Poles

It is a bit damp at my location on the planet on this 2013 State of the Union Speech Day.

With me in no mood to put on my galoshes and walk under a bumbershoot, I opted to get in my daily salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, today, by walking in Walmart.

My usual route to my neighborhood Walmart is via John T. White Road. Which might have you guessing correctly that that is John T. White Road in the photo, looking a bit damp.

As you can see, John T. White Road is a four lane boulevard, with a grass covered median.

And no sidewalks.

I think I've mentioned my opinion regarding Fort Worth's sidewalk shortage previously.

What I had not noticed, previously, til I looked at the photos I took today whilst driving, in all the years I've driven on John T. White Road, is how absurdly close utility poles are to this road, stuck in the ground where one might expect a sidewalk to be. Is this normal operating procedure to stick poles this close to a road? Seems sort of dangerous to me.

On the right side of the road, in the second photo, you can see a pedestrian walking on the well worn dirt path where most towns would have a paved sidewalk.

I remember during my month, that seemed like a year, in Tacoma, summer of 2008, I walked a lot of miles. I don't recollect walking any street in Tacoma that did not have a sidewalk, on both sides of the street, with most of the sidewalks being of the sort I've not seen in Fort Worth, as in about twice as wide as a Fort Worth sidewalk, with a landscaped strip between the sidewalk and the road.

I've not gone sidewalk inspecting in other Texas towns to see if this is a chronic Texas shortage, or just isolated to Fort Worth. I suspect this particular type shortage may be widespread in Texas.

Other than Fort Worth, the Texas towns I am most frequently in are North Richland Hills, Hurst, Pantego, Arlington and Bedford. I'll check those town's sidewalk situation the next time I am in those locations.

3 comments:

MLK said...

You couldn't pay me ANY amount of money to walk on a sidewalk in Tacoma, T-Town = THUG-Town....

2yrs11mo2wks.

Durango said...

MLK----I've walked many a mile on Tacoma sidewalks without a single thug encounter. But, I don't present a pretty little thug target, like you likely do.

Anonymous said...

Fort Lurch is once again the envy of the nation.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/12/4616549/fort-worth-breaks-ground-on-975.html

From the article:

"We will be the envy of the nation," Mayor Betsy Price said.