neighborhood with no sidewalks or curb

[Anonymous]

We are considering making an offer on a home in a neighborhood where there are no sidewalks or curbs- the property is on a "rural cross section" road with open ditch drainage. The area is not particularly rural, it's more suburban. Have you ever lived in such a neighborhood? Besides the aesthetics (which I don't mind- kind of like the wider open rural look) is there any drawback to this?

[Anonymous]

The only thing I can think of is the lack of sidewalks for walking places. Especially if your kids want to walk to a friends house. But I grew up in a place without sidewalks and we all survived our childhood. It does look nice (IMO).

[Anonymous]

I live in corporate housing in a neighborhood like this and it's terrible for kids.

[Anonymous]

A lot of Chevy Chase and Bethesda neighborhoods have this and it makes close in suburbs feel more rural and village like. It's great because it normalizes people and things in the street besides cars. Drivers are very careful instead of the false sense of security with sidewalks. Go check them out and see for yourself

[Anonymous]

No sidewalks was a deal breaker for us. Less safe to walk around the neighborhood-> less organic socializing with neighbors-> less community feel.

If it’s rural that’s one thing, if it’s suburban keep looking.

[Anonymous]

It's great. No sidewalks to shovel and people realize everyone will be walking on the side of the road. Unless there is a lot of traffic, it's no big deal.

[Anonymous]

I hate the look and feel of this.

[Anonymous]

The ditch part is annoying. I grew up in a neighborhood like this. It was quiet when I was a baby, so my parents could take us for walks on the road. Due to rapid development of surrounding areas, the roads became busy quickly. We were stranded in our yard and couldn’t even walk alongside the road across front yards because many fence lines ran to the ditch, which was usually too steep and wet for walking.

Think carefully about thru-traffic and potential for the surrounding neighborhoods to grow if you are telling yourself “we can just walk in the shoulder.”

[Anonymous]

Do you have kids? Are you planning on it? This would be a major consideration. It only takes one driver that doesn't realize everyone will be walking on the side of the road, and kids are short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Chevy Chase and Bethesda neighborhoods have this and it makes close in suburbs feel more rural and village like. It's great because it normalizes people and things in the street besides cars. Drivers are very careful instead of the false sense of security with sidewalks. Go check them out and see for yourself

I grew up in a neighborhood in Chevy Chase that was nothing like this, and remember being at my cousins’ in the Hillandale neighborhood in Silver Spring all the time that was like this and how weird it was. Super huge useless front yards and really narrow streets and in between was that weird swale with culverts under all the driveways instead of sidewalks and curbs and medians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ditch part is annoying. I grew up in a neighborhood like this. It was quiet when I was a baby, so my parents could take us for walks on the road. Due to rapid development of surrounding areas, the roads became busy quickly. We were stranded in our yard and couldn’t even walk alongside the road across front yards because many fence lines ran to the ditch, which was usually too steep and wet for walking.

Think carefully about thru-traffic and potential for the surrounding neighborhoods to grow if you are telling yourself “we can just walk in the shoulder.”

No the best part of not having sidewalks is you have a legal right to walk in the road. The sidewalkless road is super wide and friends can comfortably walk and talk 3 in a row with cars passing safely around
.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ditch part is annoying. I grew up in a neighborhood like this. It was quiet when I was a baby, so my parents could take us for walks on the road. Due to rapid development of surrounding areas, the roads became busy quickly. We were stranded in our yard and couldn’t even walk alongside the road across front yards because many fence lines ran to the ditch, which was usually too steep and wet for walking.

Think carefully about thru-traffic and potential for the surrounding neighborhoods to grow if you are telling yourself “we can just walk in the shoulder.”

No the best part of not having sidewalks is you have a legal right to walk in the road. The sidewalkless road is super wide and friends can comfortably walk and talk 3 in a row with cars passing safely around
.

What? Yes you have a legal right to walk in the road, single file.

Yep, I used to live in a neighborhood like this, they're especially awful if you have selfish neighbors who take over the road to walk in packs like this. They nearly made me late to work a few times. Add to that neighbors who constantly trespassed our lot to come "play" in the ditches, and never again.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of neighborhoods like this in NoVa.

[Anonymous]

People told me the same things- negative to not have sidewalks- before we moved into our neighborhood. And I think the commenters who say it is a negative is wrong. The culture of the neighborhood is that people walk in the streets. It’s great. You can walk with a friend and have the room you need.

People are right though that you need to think traffic patterns- if your road is a thoroughfare, then that makes us MUCH more dangerous. That is something you can look into before you buy a house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No the best part of not having sidewalks is you have a legal right to walk in the road. The sidewalkless road is super wide and friends can comfortably walk and talk 3 in a row with cars passing safely around
.

What good is your legal right if you’re permanently injured or dead?

It’s pretty simple: you don’t want to compete for space with large metal objects moving at several time your speed.