Neighborhood Planning Field Assessment

For the Neighborhood Planning Field Assignment, I decided to walk around my local neighborhood where I grew up.

Street width

From personal experience, the main road that circles around my neighborhood are an appropriate width. For the most part, two cars can properly fit and pass each other. There are some smaller roads located within the neighborhood that are not an appropriate width. Picture A is the main road that circles around the entire neighborhood. In the morning and in the evening family members or visitors will park their car on the side of the road. This prevents two cars from being able to pass each other on the street. The main road is an appropriate width and does not need to be wider.

There are smaller roads connected to the main road need to be widened. During my walk, I noticed that some roads are only big enough for one car. Majority of the people in my neighborhood drive vans, SUVs, or trucks. Picture B features a road that people entering would have to wait for the people leaving before turning onto the road. A wider street would be nice because it would allow two bigger sized cars to pass each other, but updating the street would have a negative impact. There is a possibility that homeowners would lose some of their front yards to expand the road. Construction takes time and causes a lot of negative impacts on the environment. I don’t think the people in my neighborhood would agree to expand their roads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sidewalks:

Due to the fact that I live in the suburbs, sidewalks are prominent throughout the whole neighborhood. During my walk, I discovered there are many sidewalk sections that need to be updated. The attached pictures show different sidewalks within my local neighborhood that need to be fixed. Many of the gaps in the sidewalks have been there for years and I highly doubt the gaps will be fixed anytime soon. There are many people who walk around my neighborhood rain snow or shine. Sidewalk gaps are dangerous because during the wintertime many people in my neighborhood do not shovel their sidewalks. Someone who does not know the lay of the land or where the gaps could end up seriously hurting themselves after snowfalls.

Street Safety

The streets could be improved upon for pedestrian use. The crosswalks are not marked in my neighborhood. Many pedestrians walk or ride their bikes in the street due to the unevenness of the sidewalks. Walking, running, or riding bikes in my neighborhood is very dangerous due to the fact that people fly down the road. Many people do not follow the speed limit laws in my neighborhood.

The crosswalks need to be properly marked and updated. Pictures C, D, and E show unmarked crosswalks that are falling apart.  Picture E is a crosswalk located on my street. As you can tell there is a hole in the ground where the leaves have collected. When I had to take the bus to get to my local school, I would fall into the hole in the wintertime. Depending on cold it would get a night, the hole would freeze over. There have been multiple occasions where my bus would pull in front of the hole and my only option was to walk over it.

Green Space:

My neighborhood has tried to use what little green space is available. Picture F and G is a little area that the city used to plant bushes and added rocks for decoration. From what I can tell this is the only spot that they decorated. I would like to see more decorated areas like this one throughout the whole neighborhood. My neighborhood also has a park and a long path for people to ride bikes. The park has a stone table for neighbors to sit or eat at. Benches are placed around the little park for people to sit on. I understand that green space is hard to come by in large neighborhoods but I would like to see more done to improve the attractiveness of the neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parking:

There is not a sufficient amount of parking in my neighborhood. Over the past five years, larger families have moved into my neighborhood. From what I can tell many of the larger families have children that are driving. Cars are constantly parked on the side of the street, making it hard for people to see when they are trying to turn left or right. Some smaller families are able to use the garage or driveway to fit all of their cars on. I think it would be amazing to see marked parking spaces on the streets that head straight.