{ID: an ORBT bus stop at 84th and Dodge, inaccessible due to a huge snow mound.}
This week the Walkability team with the assistance of the UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute releases a study of Omaha’s Dodge Street sidewalks. The team assessed over 25 city blocks and their intersections along Dodge Street. We brought together new people to serve in the cause of a safer and more enjoyable Omaha. We are fighting for the right to move and the right to enjoy life in our city. We want the right to move freely and safely to reach our jobs, friends, favorite shops, and schools without a car. Our communities physical and mental wellbeing and need for cleaner air demands we shift our thinking about transportation.The right to an enjoyable urban landscape acknowledges our humanity. We are not merely a collection of workers.
Do not be dominated by automobiles and the thinking that created this morass of unconnected and poorly constructed sidewalks put together as an afterthought. The city will tell you they spend millions in making the city accessible. How much do you think they spend compared to the money invested in widening roads? The pedestrian, the cyclist, the public transit user all deserve a more enjoyable life. We can’t roll up our windows and turn up our music to escape the cloud of dust. But we could work together and it is possible that you may experience an awakening. If you are still not convinced our financially conservative friends, walkability means economic success. There are Benjamins to be made here. Please download and enjoy our study (below) and look forward to future campaigns to implement strategies to improve sidewalks everywhere in Omaha.
Plowing snow into the center of the street is certainly a positive concession to enhance the walkability of our city sidewalks that abut the major thoroughfares.