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.
There are even more sidewalk gaps in the city than are on that map because it only shows the ones in those high-priority areas. Check out the map for All Sidewalk Gaps to see everywhere that lacks sidewalks.
Yes correct! Click the link here and scroll down to pg. 9: https://www.stpaul.gov/sites/default/files/Media%20Root/Public%20Works/Saint%20Paul%20Pedestrian%20Plan%20Appendices%205.8.19%20Compressed.pdf
Thanks for pointing this out, Heidi. I just checked the map you referenced, and it says there are 327 miles of sidewalk gaps in Saint Paul, and only 120 miles are in the “High Priority areas”. Wow.
And none of those missing link maps include missing sidewalks on privately owned streets, which are sometimes located right near Green Line stops like Raymond Station…
This is a real step in the right direction. There still isn’t a single metro sidewalk map, which should be part of the Met Council GIS. You have to piece it together from city and county sources and even then there are large areas (read cities) missing.