Communications and Media

FIXING ROADS AND SIDEWALKS

 Meaning of roads and sidewalks

A road is a way/route on land

Roads consist of one or more lanes
They are convenient for use by cart, horses or motor
vehicles
A sidewalk is a path with a hard surface that people
walk on
Allows pedestrians to walk at the side of the street
 poor sidewalks on streets

Some sidewalks are too old and rocky

Some sidewalks are too narrow
Many are uneven, and unleveled
Many lack pedestrian lighting
Lack of crosswalks and traffic light signals
Some are affected by weather conditions
 Effects of poor sidewalks

Pedestrian deaths are very common

Impact on long term economic growth
Neighborhood inaccessibility
Affects social amenities such as schools
Discourage physical activities
 Sidewalks in Maryland State

 In Maryland, many state roads don’t have sidewalks

 Property owners are responsible for maintenance sidewalks
 Sidewalk networks tend to be worse in disadvantaged
communities
 Sidewalks can only be constructed through petition
 Petition by property owners or direction from city council or
mayor
Condition of roads in USA
Statistics on fixing of roads and sidewalks in USA
 Poor roads

Approximately, 1 in every10 miles of road is in poor

condition in USA
California and Rhode Island are rated as the states
with the worst roads
U.S has invested heavily on infrastructure
Little has been done on repair and maintenance of
roads
 Effects of poor roads

High maintenance on vehicles

High rates of accidents
Stagnant growth in the economy
Travelling is uncomfortable
 Implementation policies to good roads

Educating drivers
Professional engineers
Maintenance of roads
Implementation of policies such as fines
 How to fix and improve sidewalks

Educating pedestrians
Shifting repairs from property owners to state
Widening sidewalks
Traffic lights and crosswalks
 References

North, E. A., D’Amato, A. W., Russell, M. B., & Johnson, G. R. (2017). The influence of

sidewalk rep

Jaiswar, S. K. (2021). A system dynamics approach to study the state of US roads:

validation of dynamic hypothesis (Master's thesis, The University of Bergen).lacement on

urban street tree growth. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 24, 116-124.

Crandall, J. R., Bhalla, K. S., & Madeley, N. J. (2002). Designing road vehicles for pedestrian

protection. Bmj, 324(7346), 1145-1148.