Forget chickens and their unfunny reasoning behind road-crossing. The real question is, why do you have to walk so far to safely cross certain roads? In Burlington, Mass., you have to walk 1.2 miles to find a crosswalk between the Burlington Mall and the AMC cineplex, even though they’re right across the street from each other.
“So what? I had to hop 10 miles uphill to school with both my feet in a burlap sack,” you say. Or maybe “Just jaywalk already!” But the conundrum hammers home a point we often harp on here at Grist: Cities too often are designed with cars in mind, not pedestrians (or cyclists).
The ridiculous Burlington walk is one of the candidates Streetsblog found for Least Crossable Street in America. Explains Streetsblog:
In most American cities you can find streets that turn what should be short, easy walking trips into excursions so long and humiliating that you might as well drive. Or, if you don’t have that option, you can take your chances playing a high-stakes game of Frogger.
Here are a couple of the most egregious candidates:
Kansas City
In Kansas City, two halves of an apartment complex are separated by NW Vivion Road. But according to Streetsblog reader Kevin Carlyle, using the nearest crosswalk to reach the apartment manager or pool involves a walk of a mile.
Atlanta
If you get off the bus at Pleasantdale Road, you can see the apartments across the street — but if you jaywalk and your kid gets killed, you might be charged with vehicular homicide like Raquel Nelson was in the Atlanta suburbs (after a public outcry, the homicide charges were dropped). This particular walk to a crosswalk makes crossing the street a .75-mile journey. Say what?!
Check out the rest on Streetsblog and vote for your pick for the worst offender.
