Haga click aqu\u00ed para leerlo la en Espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nEarlier this month, a group assembled by the City Heights Community Development Corporation\u2019s Built Environment Team set out to traverse City Heights\u2014all 2.5 miles of it\u2014by foot, wheelchair and stroller.<\/p>\n
The goal was to survey sidewalk conditions and pedestrian hazards in
\nneed of attention from regional planners and elected officials.<\/p>\n
Sidewalk and crosswalk deficiencies add up to big problems for City Heights residents, who are four times more likely to use transit\u2014and walk or wheel to transit stops\u2014than the rest of the nation. Between 2002 and 2007, the rate of pedestrian crashes in City Heights was twice the rate citywide, according to Health Equity by Design.<\/p>\n
Along University Avenue between Boundary and 54th streets, participants noted precarious crossings, sidewalks too narrow for wheelchairs to pass, dangerous holes left by uprooted trees, and missing or too-steep curb cuts (ramps) that pose problems for wheelchair users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is to document and experience firsthand how the built environment affects our mobility and our safety,\u201d said organizer Randy Van Vleck, who ran smack into raised concrete with a wheelchair borrowed from the La Maestra Family Clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some areas where there was no pavement, and going over all of these bumps, the screws from my [wheelchair] foot plates came loose and started dropping,\u201d said Ian Dosland, a wheelchair user and hand cyclist. Dosland taught Van Vleck and others trying out the wheelchairs how to back into uneven curb cuts and drop from sidewalks without the accessibility feature.<\/p>\n
What stood out for most of the participants was how conditions changed the farther east they went. Through the Cherokee Point and Corridor business districts, sidewalks were much easier to use, even pleasant. There, the streets were built to accommodate a streetcar that ran east to Euclid Avenue. Emphasis was on wide walkways, trees and storefronts.<\/p>\n
Past Euclid, University Avenue widens to four lanes, sidewalks narrow and crosswalks are scattered up to six blocks apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, after World War II the philosophy that was dominant in the United States, especially in southern California, was an auto-centric one,\u201d said Van Vleck. \u201cThe idea was to move cars as fast as possible. When we did that, we stopped planning for pedestrians and transit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Planners and groups like Van Vleck\u2019s are working to revert back to some of the features popular before the automobile era.<\/p>\n
In 2008, California lawmakers adopted the Complete Streets Act, which requires municipalities and urban planners to consider all types of road users when updating general plans and laying out projects. Cities, counties and transportation authorities have followed suit.<\/p>\n
Late last year, the San Diego City Council and Eastern Area Communities Planning Committee approved a\u00a0plan for the intersection of University Avenue and 54th Street<\/a> that embraces complete streets ideas. There, cars can turn right through the intersection without stopping, thanks to separate turn lanes that function like freeway on-ramps.<\/p>\nAccording to Van Vleck, 77 crashes happened there between 2000 and 2010, making it one of San Diego\u2019s most dangerous intersections.<\/p>\n