"Goat paths" and "cow paths": Suburbanites walk and bike at their own peril

Photo Above by Tracy A. Woodward  --  The Washington Post

 

Brushed by traffic and hugging the ditch while trying to walk to school on the only road in - Franklin's Pleasant View Elementary.

Near Franklin's Pleasant View Elementary - - a school that's over 40 years old - - there is a path worn down by kids who want to walk or bike from the nearby Hillendale subdivision, which is UNCONNECTED by sidewalk or road. Their other alternative is the sidewalk-less, shoulder-less road shown in the picture above. It's the only way in and out of the school for a constant parade of bus and car traffic.

Watching the site plan for Shoppes of Wyndham Village, we see more of the same ahead, thanks in large part to an exit-ramp strip mall Target Store shoehorned into the nominal city center.

From the story below:

So in the absence of sidewalks, paved bike paths or even a wide shoulder on the road, walkers are blazing their own trails. The telltale yellow ribbons of wilted grass and dull, earthen stripes hugging the curb are created and maintained by carless employees, cycling teens or older people en route to Starbucks. Together, Loudoun pedestrians and cyclists have forged more than a Girl Scout camp's worth of trails.

Some planners call them "goat paths" or "cow paths," akin to routes animals tread from field to barn and back. Some call them "demand lines," because they paint a map of sidewalks to be built.

"They are evidence that we still have a ways to go" in providing a transportation network for everyone, said Cindy Engelhart, bicycle and pedestrian transportation engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The footpaths exist everywhere in the region, she said, from the District to the suburbs to  the rural fringe.

From Washingtonpost.com:

Without a Car, Suburbanites Tread in Peril
Loudoun Residents Blaze Their Own Risky Trails Where Sidewalks and Bike Paths Are Lacking

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2007; B01

Barring obstacles, Leesburg resident Jose Vetura could probably walk to work in 10 minutes. But with a six-foot-tall iron fence and six lanes of traffic in his way, he takes a detour.

The 26-year-old restaurant worker follows a well-worn dirt path along the fence, past fast-food wrappers and dandelions to the intersection of Edwards Ferry Road and the Route 15 bypass. There, surrounded by shards of glass and cigarette butts, he waits for a gap in the traffic and bolts across the bypass without any help from a crosswalk. After hiking up a gravel hill, he crosses a vast parking lot past Ruby Tuesday and Ross Dress for Less before reaching his destination in about 20 minutes.

In large parts of Loudoun County and many suburbs elsewhere, pedestrians often commute at their peril. Virginia's fastest-growing county and its developers have long focused on expanding and managing a road network for vehicular traffic, but until recently, little attention has been paid to the growing ranks of pedestrians.

So in the absence of sidewalks, paved bike paths or even a wide shoulder on the road, walkers are blazing their own trails. The telltale yellow ribbons of wilted grass and dull, earthen stripes hugging the curb are created and maintained by carless employees, cycling teens or older people en route to Starbucks. Together, Loudoun pedestrians and cyclists have forged more than a Girl Scout camp's worth of trails.

Some planners call them "goat paths" or "cow paths," akin to routes animals tread from field to barn and back. Some call them "demand lines," because they paint a map of sidewalks to be built.

"They are evidence that we still have a ways to go" in providing a transportation network for everyone, said Cindy Engelhart, bicycle and pedestrian transportation engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. The footpaths exist everywhere in the region, she said, from the District to the suburbs to  the rural fringe.

When planning a new road, engineers use such trails to learn what pedestrians need. Since 2004, the state transportation department has followed a policy of including bicycle and pedestrian facilities with each new project, unless there are safety concerns or other issues.

At the local level, counties tend to develop walking and cycling infrastructure as they urbanize, Engelhart said.

A survey of 840 miles of roads in Loudoun found that 14 percent had sidewalks, according to a bicycle and pedestrian mobility plan county supervisors adopted in 2003.

The county began requiring sidewalks or bike trails in new developments in the mid-1990s, but in many places it is hard to see much effect. The result is a piecemeal network of sidewalks and trails that begin and end haphazardly, influenced by the date or parameters of developers' contracts. Many times, there are no formal paths between neighborhoods and nearby shopping centers, parks or schools.

The county is seeking to strengthen its pedestrian transportation network, but funds are limited. Gas tax revenue pays for a handful of walking or bicycling projects a year, said Charles Acker, a Loudoun traffic control engineer. Developers, on a project-by-project basis, do most of the work.

One recent sidewalk project connected a dense neighborhood of townhouses to a grocery store and shopping center in Sterling. A block-long asphalt path runs behind the new cluster of stores.

Lan Dinh, 32, beamed as she walked home along the quiet, shady path toting a bag of groceries for dinner. "This is nice," she said.

Before the path was built, she had relied on a narrow and sometimes slippery dirt trail along Route 7 for her shopping expeditions, she said.

As long as walkers and cyclists continue forging their own paths, hazards are inevitable.

The intersection of Edwards Ferry Road and the Route 15 bypass is one of the county's most dangerous, county and Leesburg officials say. That stretch of the bypass carries more than 50,000 vehicles a day and separates a major shopping destination from a largely Hispanic and low-income neighborhood.

Town officials recall one pedestrian fatality and another injury in that stretch over the past five years. Leesburg Town Council member Kenneth D. Reid called the crossing a "ticking time bomb." Residents have been seen bicycling and even pushing strollers across. They are willing to risk their lives "to get a loaf of bread or to get a job," he said.

Throughout Northern Virginia, more than 3,000 pedestrians were involved in car accidents between 1999 and 2003, according to a 2005 study by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Hispanic pedestrians were the most likely to be hospitalized from the injuries, at a rate of eight per 100,000 people, more than twice the rate for non-Hispanic whites.

The town has tried to prevent residents from crossing there by offering a free shuttle and erecting the iron fence next to the road. But the well-beaten paths around the fence show pedestrian traffic remains heavy. As for the shuttle, Vetura said waiting for it takes too much time.

Ilham Mohamed, 19, waited for a bus one recent morning but worried that she would be late to her job at a nearby outlet mall. So she decided to walk. She dodged traffic across the intersection and then continued along the edge of the bypass, her hair blowing with each passing car.

"I know it's sort of dangerous," she said, her voice pitched against rush hour's rumble. "But you gotta do what you gotta do."

Comments

[Ron Rady]

Wind, Rain, Snow, Dark of Night.
Bugs, Muggers, Drunks.
Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall. Heat, Humidity, A/C and Music.
Boots, Raincoats, Umbrella's, Bike Racks, Back Packs, Book Bags, Lunch Boxes, Water bottles,
Purses, Carry all's.
Retail is about sales of Merchandise?
How much can a person walking or riding carry or pull?
What percent of people who love to walk where they want to go (and can) will not drive it?. I say they will walk or ride 5% of the time. What is the most important thing to nearly all 16 year olds? Its not roller blades.

[John Michlig]

Worry not - it's not paths and sidewalks INSTEAD OF roads; it's IN ADDITION TO.

What is the most important thing to nearly all 16 year olds? Well, AFTER the more obvious answer, I think he's referring to CARS.

Guess what? Make it possible for them to get to work and social activities on foot and by good, safe public transportation, and you take THOUSANDS of statistically deadly drivers off the road. We're killing our kids with the whole "gotta have a car" mind-set - - which is based on sprawled development conditions.

Also, we have to start weaning ourselves from the car because these artificially low (yes, LOW) gas prices won't last forever.

Fear not "Wind, Rain, Snow, Dark of Night, Bugs, Muggers, Drunks, Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall, Heat, Humidity, A/C and Music(?)," Mr. Rady. Well-traveled public places make for SAFE places. And overcoat technology is better now than it has ever been.

Want REAL fear? Try watching your child attempt to traverse a sidewalk-less road just to get to school. Or observe your dear Aunt Anne as she attempts to pilot her walker from the new Target Store to the Starbucks that is positioned across a void of uninterrupted asphalt.

And realize that, if and when pedestrian conditions are improved, your choice is never taken away; you can continue to drive to your heart's content.

[Bryan Maersch]

The "goat path" or "cow lanes" are all our children have to and from our subdivision "High View Estates" which is just behind the High School. The kids come home with muddy or soaking feet as they make their way through the path. We are saving city and school system the costs of not transporting our children to or from school plus cutting back on pollution the buses cause. The least thing that could be done is to pave the path. The only other alternative is for the kids to walk on the side of the road of 51st street and take their chances of getting hit by cars. This is poor planning by our city engineers. In contrast, we can push to spend 78 million to give our children a new High School with multiple playing fields, a stage and 4 new gyms, but not a sidewalk to keep them safe!

[Greg Kowalski]

I agree with Bryan on this. There should be better transportation methods around the schools in our community.

I remember taking that cruddy path when I was in high school 2 years ago to go to a friend's house. Muddy doesn't cut it - it is almost like a swamp, and thus students would NOT use the simple path, but rather use their car and spend the extra 10 minutes of parking in the parking lot that's almost 6 blocks distance from the school at its farthest end.

If there was better sidewalks and paths planned out, perhaps the school district wouldn't be concerned with trying to find out where to put additional parking spaces - a big complaint of students that only seems to get bigger since there's more children in FPS thanks to all the new subdivisions being built like Walgreens on a good fiscal year...ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It's amazing when you realize just how many people live in the subdivisions behind the high school and across 51st Street from the high school. One wonders how many children actually live within walking distance of most schools in FPS but parents don't want them walking in the street to go to school.

[Ron Rady]

Many people get married and then find out that the things they thought love would change never do. They then say that they made a mistake and abandon ship. Don't buy or build thinking that things will be what you hope them to. Buy or build where they already are what you deem idealistic. I admire your desire to plan well. I want everything I want too. Who will pay for it? We do not have a financial crisis in our country, we have a thinking crisis. Lottery tickets, cigarettes, Latte, Liquor, fast food burgers at $12.00 lb.$3.00 bottle water.. School as a social institution, not a learning institution. We pay people not to work and we get people who don’t work. We want Peace with out war and the ability to protest or oppose war comes only through war. We see as rights (me included) as those things that I want. Rights truly are what you would be willing to die to preserve for all men. I am as self-centered as most. (more then many) It is not the work of or the fault of others that I have what I want. It is likely your fault that you don’t. Move to where you will have what you want. Remember that you take yourself with you. Champion your causes. (I admire your ambition) The issue becomes you forcing on others what you feel they should have and then making them pay for it. What makes your rights more important then theirs? Because they don’t think or care about some things (or at least not like you) you feel they must have what you want. You want them for neighbors by living there. Why not choose to live in Middleton. Those that really know say that is the best place to live. I think they make them selves happy living in the ideal of what really is but never can be. Does that mean the other communities suck and so do the idiots (me) that live there make it suck. Property tax is not really property tax. You do not own your land. It is only rent. If the community decides that you should do with your land what they want they will make you pay for it. Run for office (or from it) , form your own government or over throw the one that is in place. Just remember that all government starts with self-government. I do not force my ways on others. I really don’t like others doing that to me. (even if I’m not smart enough to know what is good for me) I love the freedom of speech that allows me to say it. Those that are intelligent in the use of words may cause me to rethink things. Why is Middleton soooo great??? Because I don’t live there. I can if I want. I chose not to. Change the things you can. It may even be the way I think, if you try hard enough it may be the way you think. Change where you live, if you try hard enough you may change where others don’t live. The government we have now made lots of laws against that. We can’t say it but we definitely choose it. What will happen when you can’t? War? Love your neighbors or chose to live near ones you can. Just don’t call it discrimination. When we can rid the world of Sexual predators discrimination and guns our children will be safe to walk, skate or ride anywhere we dog gone well want them to. (with helmets, wrist and knee pads of course)

People are building houses in Franklin that are in the highest income brackets in the Midwest. Do you think they will make their kids walk? Why do they have 4 car garages? Could someone who spends $500,000.00 for a house put on a $150,000.00 lot spend $3000.00 on sidewalks ? They are spending money to live where they want. It’s not the big city. They love the car. Should McDonalds close their drive thru’s. Walgreen’s, M&I or even Applebee’s have capitalizes on the stupid people that drive cars. Why pave and light and plow a parking lot when we can own ½ the land and do twice the business? To those dumb gas users. Provoke my thinking. I challenge you. Show me how to legislate common sense. Don’t take away my rights. Many great people died for a dream. I hope you find yours. Find it where others think like you and like you and you like them. Don’t get west-nile virus from those mosquitoes that live in those ponds that you build all your sidewalks around. Don’t’ let anyone spray anything to stop the mosquitoes that might make your kids sick so that they wont get sick walking where they need to because their family cant afford a car because you have taxed them to death to give them your idea of safety and quality of life. Answer them why the Jones have a car and we don’t. Check the crime rate along bus lines and communities that have sidewalks, then decide to live there yourself. Ask your self: why don’t our public School teachers live near the Schools they teach at our send their own children to public Schools? What is the real Crisis in our country? We (I) have not learned to see anything past what will please me short term. You don’t have to be old to be wise, and you don’t have to be young to be foolish. You just have to think you are more important and smarter then me.

[John Michlig]

Mr. Rady, I can't say I disagree with EVERYTHING you write, but certain elements of your comments reveal much about the malaise we are slipping into.

This statement is most interesting:
"...their family cant afford a car because you have taxed them to death."

You can be assured of this fact: The current regressive tax scheme in America means that the above scenario has nothing to do with reality. Try ""...their family can't afford a THIRD car because you have taxed them to death." You have simply accepted the right wing lie regarding our tax burden.

[Ron Rady]

They can afford it. They have cable, cell phones, and every modern conceivable desire. We are not overtaxed. We allow it to be spent on the things we want rather then what we need. Back to the thinking crisis (my own included) it's not a lie, it's a misunderstood truth. We have been overtaxed for the wrong things
Want vs. Need
Right vs. Privilage