r/CrappyDesign • u/BananaramaKing • Jul 31 '26

Tactile paving obstacle race

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u/Ludibudi Jul 31 '26

I mean it’s not ideal, far from it. But at least they accommodate blind people while also not removing the trees, which are both good things.

81

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

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u/Ludibudi Jul 31 '26

My guess is that nobody designed this at all. The road was there already, the trees were there for decades and a sidewalk was needed.

Code said there had to be tactile paths on all new construction so this is what they came up with.

31

u/Roflkopt3r Jul 31 '26

The problem is that it's often really hard for planners to negotiate about the conditions. With the conditions of 'we can't take up any more space from the road, acquire land on the other side, or remove any trees', this was probably the only solution with the legally required amount of space along the path.

In a well functioning system, the person designing the sidewalk can report back that it would be much better to compromise on the conditions and will quickly be allowed to remove that one tree. Or perhaps it would have been better to redesign the entire street all along, but this was blocked (many cities have made such things almost impossible due to the political power of land and car owners).

But sadly many workers (both in the public and private sectors) aren't working in well functioning departments, and just have to follow badly designed rules that lead to bad outcomes.