The Incredible Shrinking Sidewalk
Back to basics in this post… We are talking about sidewalks! And perhaps one of the most annoying sidewalk challenges that I see on a daily basis, but arguably, also one of the most easily solvable. I am of course talking about sidewalk encroachment, in particular encroachment from plants growing on private properties.
Victoria is known as the City of Gardens and for the most part most people do their best to have their gardens and yards in decent shape, in my neighbourhood of Oaklands their are some truly beautiful gardens even in small spaces. Unfortunately, not everyone keeps their garden up in the same way and where that lack of maintenance borders on a sidewalk, it can often have terrible impacts on pedestrians. If you read my post last year on snow routes you will know that I think there are some challenges with how our sidewalks are maintained. Or at least how they fall into a grey area when compared to roads for whose responsibility it is to maintain the right of way. It should be said that no other transportation route is treated the way sidewalks are, not roads, rail or even bike lanes.
As you know, I am a walking commuter and for the last year have had the added benefit of walking to and from work with my littlest kid in his stroller. The addition of the stroller has really illustrated to me how challenging sidewalks can be for those that might not have the benefit of being able to just walkaround or over any obstacle. Even with a stroller, I have a fair bit more manoeuvrability then a wheelchair for example. If I need to I can go onto the street or lift a tire up on the curb to get back up on the sidewalk. If I couldn’t do that, there would be lots of places where I assume the only choice would be to turnaround or get stuck.
The most common problem that I see, that is either pushing me into the street or making me duck down is poorly maintained trees, bushes and plants next to the sidewalk and I think that often the owner isn’t even aware that it is a problem.
Owners are required to make sure that their gardens are not impacting sidewalks (and that includes grass creep) so if you have a particularly tricky bit of sidewalk near you and it is clear that the owner is not planning on doing anything about it, take a picture with your phone and open up the Connect Victoria App and navigate to the streets portion. From there you an pinpoint the issue on a sidewalk and include a picture. The City will contact the owner and ask them to take of the problem and that is that unless it isn’t done. If the problem persists, eventually the City will go in and do the work themselves and bill it back to the owner. That said, the few times that I have done it, it seems to get resolved quickly.
I would love to hear about your nightmare sidewalk stories in the comments. What is the worst you have seen?