Lemme whisper in your ear, "The sidewalks are getting redone with paver stones, the intersections are getting raised to sidewalk level, and the bike lanes will connect directly with a larger protected bike lane network and directly to an in-progress new automated light metro station that will have 2.5-minute headways."
What’s the benefit of paver sidewalks? I would think they’d be harder to keep clear of snow, like I know people with brick/paver drives and they’re less easy to shovel. Plus more points to become unsettled/uneven and have edges come up for tripping. I assume there’s positives I’m missing!
They've already installed some in my neighborhood, and they have a very smooth, even surface. Beyond that, I think it's just an aesthetic thing: create really attractive, pleasant spaces and you'll attract more pedestrians. And of you're in a dense neighborhood, the local tax revenues are more than enough to afford nicer surfaces than if you're having to cover a ton of sprawling suburbia.
They also feel they are less slippery when it rains and allow rainwater to seep into the ground directly rather than direkt it to the sewers. This unburdens the sewer system and the humitity in the ground helps cool cities.
Awesome! I just got back from Montreal. The impression we (Europeans) got was that it's pretty car-centric and the nicest parts of the city are used for parking lots, but it's better than, say, Toronto. Nice to hear it's improving.
Yeah, it's probably the most urbanist major city in North America (except NYC, but that's in a league of its own), but even with that it's still got way too many cars. Best thing about it, though, is that the populace is pretty pro-urbanism, and we got a very pro-density and pro-transit mayor and city council.