Rolling My Wheels To Walmart In Search Of A Fort Worth Sidewalk

Last night after the sun set for the day I was giving my aching self a salubrious hot tub soak, when pinpricks of recently frozen water began pummeling me. It felt good.

As I was being pummeled by the incoming former ice I remembered I'd forgotten to get salsa when I was at ALDI earlier that day. Salsa is a much needed ingredient for the baked enchiladas I was making for today's Sunday buffet.

In the middle of the night I was laying awake and had myself a brilliant idea. In the morning I would roll the wheels of my bike the less than 3 miles to Walmart to get that much needed salsa, figuring Sunday morning, with cold temperatures, there would be few people out and about.

Of course this wheeling rolling to Walmart plan was predicated on the predicted precipitation in the form of sleet and snow not precipitating, which had me a bit disappointed to see, upon the first light of dawn, that the outer world was dripping wet.

When I took this morning's salubrious hot tub soak I was once again pummeled by extremely cold formerly frozen water.

In the middle of the night I decided when I rolled my wheels to Walmart in the morning part of my plan was to document the pathetic lack of sidewalks along this route, with that lack making riding ones bike a bit more hazardous than it need be. I also wanted to document the lack of sidewalks leading to the John T. White Elementary School, which opened just a couple years ago, on John T. White Road.

I have long wondered who in the world John T. White was that he is so honored with a school and a sidewalk free road named after him.

Well, due to the extreme drippage I decided to opt out of riding my bike to Walmart. Instead I used the old-fashioned method of using my mechanized means of locomotion. On route I snapped pictures through the windshield of the missing sidewalks along John T. White Road.

In the above picture you are looking at the dirt path ending, turning into the narrow paved sidewalks which runs in front of John T. Elementary School. That would be the school you see on the right in the picture.

Apartments Short Distance West of John  T. White
 with NO sidewalks

To the west of John T. Elementary School, on John T. White Road there are multiple apartment complexes. You see the kids in those complexes walking along the dirt path with leads to their school.

You reading this in other parts of America, did you realize there are still towns in America without sidewalks, where kids wear in dirt paths to make their way to school?

Do no kids ride their bikes to school at this location? When I was in elementary school I rode my bike to school . The school was about a mile ride, all on sidewalk, unless I chose to pedal on the road. Lots of kids rode their bikes to school when I was a kid. The school had a big bike rack to park our bikes on.

How is it allowed in civilized, modern America to build a school without sidewalks built to walk on so as to walk safely to school? Are there no codes or standards or regulations or something that covers this type neglect?

What about the Americans with Disabilities Act? Does that kick in in this type circumstance for a kid in a wheelchair needing to wheel himself to school at John T. Elementary School?

Methinks Fort Worth really should collectively feel ashamed of itself for this obvious neglect. How can this town waste so much money on things not needed, such as Three Bridges Over Nothing, which likely will be over nothing for a long, long time, when the relative pittance required to build a necessary amenity, like sidewalks, is deemed something not worthy of doing?

Isn't that Americans with Disabilities Act as federal law? How do you get the feds to intervene when a city is negligent regarding the basics? Such as sidewalks to schools and running water and modern restrooms in its parks?

It is very perplexing to me....