One afternoon last week on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, I watched a handicapped man get off a Chatham Area Transit bus at 33rd Street.
He walked slowly but safely off the bus and stepped into the street, but then he had to face another obstacle. He had to step up over the curb onto an uneven tree lawn.
There are lovely brick sidewalks along that stretch of MLK, but there are lengthy stretches where there are no crosswalks. So the sidewalks lack ramps that lead into the street.
In other words, someone with a physical handicap or someone pushing a stroller can walk north and south along MLK, but there are many blocks where it’s difficult — and dangerous — to cross the street.
Even an able-bodied pedestrian has to be exceedingly careful to cross certain stretches of MLK. Near 33rd Street, you have to cross a parking lane and two travel lanes to get to the median, which itself is so narrow that you can feel the gusts of passing cars.
Ever so often, a bicyclist will cross MLK along that stretch. I’ve seen a couple of young riders literally jump their bikes up onto the median, but it seems that most riders dismount and carry their bikes across it.
That’s a cumbersome process, but a lot more efficient than riding several blocks north or south before doing a U-turn at a busy intersection.
I ride my bike around downtown a lot, but I don’t feel safe on MLK because of the traffic patterns. So it was no surprise that in a relatively short period of time I saw six cyclists headed south on the sidewalk rather than venture into the street.
The city of Savannah made a big investment in the newish median and brick sidewalks along that portion of MLK, but we ended up creating an urban speedway with no east-west connectivity for blocks at a stretch.
A block over on Montgomery Street, other problems are presented by the unusually wide travel lanes, the unused on-street parking and the poorly maintained sidewalk. In front of one large business, the sidewalk literally disappears into a parking lot.
How much value could we add to the neighborhood if it had better connectivity and friendlier streets?
That’s a tough question to answer, but it’s pretty clear that we will in fact see better street designs on Montgomery and MLK eventually.
After all, the neighborhood that I’m talking about is less than a 10-minute walk from the Landmark Historic District. It’s on high ground, and there is a lot of available land.
In other words, it’s primed for major development in 10 or 20 years. Those future developers will insist on safer streets and sidewalks.
Let’s hope that existing residents and businesses don’t have to wait that long.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.
