Cities are for people. Unfortunately, they are rarely designed for people. It is usually apparent that those in power--and those designing cities and putting up signs--are not thinking like pedestrians. No wonder it is hard to get people out of their cars--people keep designing places for cars and not people. See my previous post about this.
On Tuesday, I walked from Emeryville to Oakland. As I approached a bridge that clearly had no sidewalks, I began looking for alternatives. The expected "no pedestrians on bridge" sign was very clear, and included an apparently helpful "use walkway" directive. As I got to the sign, there was no indication of what direction the "walkway" would be in, and no obvious place for pedestrians to go. So I walked across the parking lot of a private business, and reached another street that had sidewalks, although not exactly going in the direction I was hoping for. After going down that street a ways, I crossed it, and walked on the other side, eventually reaching a walkway that ramped up next to a wall and dead-ended at a locked maintenance entrance of a large building. No signs had indicated this sidewalk would dead-end at a private business with a locked door. I guess no one unfamiliar with the area ever walks there. I walked back to the intersection, went around the wall into the street, and walked down the bike lane for a block or so until a sidewalk resumed.
On Thursday, I was part of a group of young children, parents, and teachers that were walking from Redwood Glen Camp in Loma Mar to Memorial Park. We wanted to walk to the Mt. Ellen Trail through a campground that was closed for repaving, but since many in the group had walked through the campground the previous day, and since we weren't trying to camp there, we assumed it was okay as long as we stayed out of the way of the workers and off the fresh asphalt.
A short walk on a trail past the closed sign led us to a campground loop, with a San Mateo County Park Ranger vehicle parked on the freshly paved asphalt at a water treatment building. Our leader walked over to the ranger, telling him we were trying to get to the Mt. Ellen Trail. The ranger, clearly not happy that we were there, told us that closed means closed, and began to say "You need to get back in your cars and..."
