Deadly Curb Cuts

In the past we have looked at what a proper, well-maintained, curb cut looks like and how it can make crossing the street simple and uneventful. However, there are exceptions to the rules that are beyond ridiculous. Last week we looked at the consequences of using a combined variety of construction materials, such as concrete, asphalt and paving stones, to build a sidewalk and what one winter in our climate can do to the usefulness of those sidewalks.

This week we look at the consequences of some of the extreme, but far too common, examples of when those materials shift over a few winters.

I know that scale is often difficult to perceive in a photograph so let me give you a hard number. The lip you see in the photo above is located just down the street from our house and is nearly 10 cm or 4 inches tall. This is dangerous on its own to come down off the road to a drop that significant but it's more than that. You're coming down into a gutter that immediately begins sloping upward, making the perfect grove for the front wheels of a wheelchair to dig in and jolt the user with more than enough force to compromise balance which could easily send them out of their chair, or tip the chair over.

Traveling the opposite direction, you're coming down a rutted slope (I understand the importance of those ruts for the visually impaired) which introduces vibrations to begin with just before slamming into a solid wall of asphalt. The perfect example of this is downtown by Citizen Café. Descending the concrete sidewalk, the roadway has crumbled with numerous holes in the asphalt at the bottom of a very steep curb cut. Seeing what I was about to run into, I was able to stop my chair, after a bit of uncontrolled sliding down the steep curb cut, and climb back up. Thankfully the driveway to an automotive shop was close by and the street was quiet enough that I did not feel in danger jaywalking to get across to the café. This was downtown, just a few blocks away from the ideal curb cut shown in the post linked to above.

Under ideal circumstances I could, as a C5-C6 quadriplegic, very slowly navigate this lip to descend with a degree of safety but to climb up that lip would be a challenge because of the difficulty of popping a wheelie while rolling down a hill. Because of that it would need to be done by climbing it from a nearly stopped position, eliminating the much needed momentum to make the climb doable. In this instance I had not only a camera bag but some lighting equipment with me in order to make the photo. I had to find far less dangerous transitions to safely get to the location, make the photo and get home safely.

Rounded curbs with reasonable gutters would be safer than these curb cuts with terrible transitions. What I cannot understand is why the annual pothole repair crews cannot be instructed to either fill in these transitions with asphalt or cold mix when they are in the area or to smooth them out out with the equipment they have for preparing potholes for repair. I understand that either option has its problems but how can this not be a priority?

The problem with filling it in is that it could affect drainage and curb cuts like these are already notorious for filling up with sand and debris, carried to them by rain and other water draining as it should in the gutters of the street. The problem with shaving down the asphalt is that the integrity of the road in those places may be compromised. My argument to that is if it is an annual task appropriate small repairs should be able to be made easily, regularly, and without long-term damage to the road.

I know that it's difficult to predict how land will settle over time, and the soil in our neighborhood is very sandy, but when this happens it simply should be the city's duty to fix these shiftings. I would expect the amount of taxes we pay in these new areas of the city to at least provide us a safe place to go for a stroll.

I still insist that the CPA wheelchair relay take place outside in places like this. Get our Mayor and other "celebrities" wheeling across this, falling face first in the concrete and maybe that would bring a little bit of action in our city's accessibility instead of just the lip service we receive every year from them.

Solution: I'm thinking that we should be reporting these as potholes but I do not feel we are a large enough proportion of the population to garner any action from those who have the power and the money.

Curb Cuts

If I am fortunate enough to find a parallel parking spot, or an angle spot at the right-side end of a row, that doesn't obstruct my ramp or lift with a planter or bike rack, and it has a parking meter usable by me, I might be able to access the amenities of downtown. That is, if I am not stuck wheeling multiple blocks one direction or the other searching for a curb cut as seen above. Crossing in the middle of the street because there is a curb cut/driveway for an alley is not unusual for me.

Unfortunately, once you get beyond downtown Saskatoon, curb cuts become a rarity. Old "character" areas of the city have few curb cuts, very high sidewalks, very few driveways, and sporadic back alleys. Any time I have tried to enjoy a photo walk with friends in those scenic parts of town I have spent more time searching for places to cross the street than actually enjoying the neighborhood, the scenery, and the photography. Newer areas are usually fairly good about having curb cuts but they are notorious for losing their smooth transition between the sidewalk and the road after one winter. That is, the concrete sinks and the asphalt heaves making for a large lip at the bottom of the sloped curb cut; ideal for doing a headfirst dive out of my chair if I am not very careful.

Speaking of winter, as we plunged back down into the -30°C range, everything but fresh snow becomes as hard as concrete and, ironically, makes it easier to wheel through and over than when it is warmer. A recent respite from the cold had us enjoying slightly above 0°C weather in January. However, the streets are a jagged, rutted mess now that it has refrozen and when it was warm the gritty, wet, slop that I would have to wheel through to cross a street makes for an utter mess. I restricted my parking to being on the same block as my destination. This did result in passing up three coffee shop options before settling on one where I lucked out to find a usable parking space.

I do not know what the answer for this problem is in winter. Anything but the most thorough snow removal would make for similar problems, but I do believe that improvement is possible. As for the limited parking downtown and the dangerous ridges where a curb cut meets the heaved asphalt, there are simple solutions. Firstly, remove the planters and move the bike racks. When the springtime pothole repair crews come to the neighborhood, the transition at the bottom of the curb cut could be made much safer for nine months out of the year for anyone using a wheelchair, stroller or other mobility aid, by evening out the ridge with the asphalt equipment they use to fill potholes. Regarding the complete lack of curb cuts in older neighborhoods that require me to spend much of my travel time on the street searching for a place to get back onto the sidewalk, that is simply an unacceptable discrimination.

On a positive note, the snow build up at the edges of roads, and medians in parking lots, often makes for the perfect transition between the lower and higher surfaces. Under the right circumstances, including a temperature of about -15°C or colder, everywhere is a curb cut, or should I say ramp. Aside from the bumpy surfaces, at least we are lucky enough, on occasion, to have easy access to small height differences.

Source and Solution: The only way to improve the situation is through organized petition of your city council.