What ever happened to sidewalks?

[NewbieChris]

correction you've never had sidewalks at your parents home. :)

Dude, its gonna be all mine when they die. :whistle

[NewbieChris]

For me it gives me a family, active and community feel. A neighborhood to me is people walking to friends houses, to the corner store, kids riding bikes down the sidewalk, walking dogs... Without sidewalks it has to be done on the street and people only seem to do it when they have to.

My family has lived in a lot of different communities in the suburbs of philly, LA (if you can consider them suburbs, and at the jersey shore). Sidewalks always seemed most prominent in areas where there was heavier flow of traffic and more people. Our first development was a 'planned community', whatever that means. It had trails, a tennis court a basketball court, and an large open field. All of the things you mentioned could be done and not in the street. However, we moved onto a street with basically NO traffic flow and it was better to be able to bike in the street. The places where the sidewalks appeared the most was at the Jersey shore and in Cali. Basically because there was too much traffic flow for people to utilize the street.

We currently live in a wooded area without sidewalks, but the streets are basically empty all the time so I always see people walking and kids playing. Not much biking occurs, but I live like 10 minutes from the Perkiomen Trail / Valley Forge (you should know what this is) Park and there is always major traffic flow there.

That was just my personal experience, but it seems to weigh true to most of the areas I go.