neighborhood with no sidewalks or curb

[Anonymous]

We live in a neighborhood like this. It’s been ok but I’m a bit more paranoid about DD age 9 going out on her bike now. We are not in a cut thru street or main road so that helps.

[Anonymous]

I live in a rural area and this is how our roads are. I hate it. You cannot walk or run on the road safely, having to walk or run on the grass only, pushing a stroller or riding a bike on it is unpleasant.

It may be your legal right to walk in the road, but that doesn't make it safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the look and feel of this.

Lack of curbs and gutters was a deal breaker for me.

[Anonymous]

If it’s an actually enclosed neighborhood (separate from through streets and cross streets), then yes, I would absolutely do it. If your street is a cross street or through street that is widely used, no way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it’s an actually enclosed neighborhood (separate from through streets and cross streets), then yes, I would absolutely do it. If your street is a cross street or through street that is widely used, no way.

Exactly this. We have almost no sidewalks anywhere in the county. I live in a neighborhood of 3 cul-de-sacs and people are in the street all the time because traffic is non-existent and you can see cars coming pretty easily. Kids play in the street, people walk their dogs…all normal. And yes, no shoveling is fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it’s an actually enclosed neighborhood (separate from through streets and cross streets), then yes, I would absolutely do it. If your street is a cross street or through street that is widely used, no way.

Exactly this. We have almost no sidewalks anywhere in the county. I live in a neighborhood of 3 cul-de-sacs and people are in the street all the time because traffic is non-existent and you can see cars coming pretty easily. Kids play in the street, people walk their dogs…all normal. And yes, no shoveling is fantastic.

+1 We live in a neighborhood like this in MoCo and love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Our neighborhood is very quiet and this isn’t an issue. It would be a significant issue if there was more traffic for kids.

[Anonymous]

That would be a dealbreaker for me. It is horrible and especially unsafe with the massive trucks and SUVs being made now with their elevated frontover risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Haha no. You need to plan better and slow down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is the oddest comment. I live in a Bethesda neighborhood with no sidewalks. Incredibly safe, adults set up pickleball nets in the middle of the street, kids play basketball on the street, lemonade stands are at the bottom of a driveway, we have block parties, the ice cream truck comes, and it definitely feels like a neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

The street I grew up on is like this. My brother lives there now, and it's not a problem. It's suburban, not a dead end/cul de sac but also not a very busy road. When it rains really, really hard and long, there are no storm drains to clog and flood things.

[Anonymous]

We live in Bethesda, and there are no sidewalks (unfortunately). However, we otherwise find Bethesda to be a very nice place to live (educated people, good schools, good location).

[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

No Bethesda or Chevy Chase neighborhood has open drainage ditches.

[Anonymous]

No sidewalks is fine. Open drainage ditches is a big no for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We lived in the Rollingwood section of Chevy Chase. No sidewalks. Not a problem for us.