If all goes according to plan, Saint Paul’s first ever Pedestrian Plan is set to for passage this month. It’s a large document that tries to look at how the city can improve infrastructure and the environment for people walking around. (See also the podcast about this plan.)
The plan has a few interesting maps, but none so intriguing as this one, which grades the city for high- and low-priority. Check it out:
The map was generated by looking at a few different factors, including equity, safety, connectivity, the number of destinations, transit access, and health outcomes. The idea is to quickly show, all things being equal, which parts of the city should be at the top of the list for grant applications or scarce city funds for safety improvements. (Non-priority areas will still get improvements, though, as the city’s approach to walking infrastructure is to seize every opportunity to make improvements as they come up.)
Check out the whole plan here.
And for fun, here’s the same map with the “sidewalk gaps” overlaid on top of it.
As you can see, there are lots of parts of Saint Paul without sidewalks. At the current pace, filling in the gaps is going to be a long process.