Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Thursday, November 5, 2009

In America’s Southeast where I live when I’m not on sabbatical, sidewalks tend to sit at the bottom of the totem pole of infrastructure priorities; too often, they are the first expense cut as a municipality trims its sails. In my neighborhood in Mount Airy, NC — built in the 1950s — sidewalks simply do not exist. They were never put in. If you’re a walker or a jogger, the street is your corridor.

But here in Warsaw, walkability matters. Sidewalks are everywhere, and they’re serious business. As you look around the City of the Mermaid, watching a fair amount of construction activity occur (proof positive that the statistics showing Poland to be the only country in Europe experiencing net positive economic growth this year during the global downturn are true), you’ll notice that sidewalk construction and renovation represent a significant part of the overall effort.

Everywhere in the city, you see sidewalks going in. Here in the Bielany section of Warsaw north of the City Center where my son and I are living during my sabbatical, every day I track the progress of the new sidewalks. We’re not talking about asphalt or poured concrete. A decision has clearly been made at the Public Works Department to spare no expense and invest in world-class sidewalks. What you see going in are interlocking concrete pavers, the kind that form a pattern not unlike that of a brick road. These pavers strike me as a wise investment, with a life cycle doubtless decades longer than their flat-chested cousins that heave, buckle and crack over time. From our early October snow storm, I can attest to the fact that these sidewalks weather snow better. Their runners make it harder for winter’s ice and snow to freeze in sheets, and make it easier for water and slush to run off and drain.

Heading out on errands midday, today I watched as a work crew shoveled the sand to form a sub base over which the pavers will be placed. In another section of the city, where Henry and I walk to Polish language classes twice a week, a major section of sub-par sidewalk has been removed to make way for the new. And in the Mokotow section of the city, near where Henry attends school, you can’t help note of the smart design on a wide, blocks-long swath of sidewalk which cleverly designates two thirds of its space for bicycles, the rest for foot traffic. (This sidewalk even features a pedestrian “crosswalk” through the bicycle lane.)

In my car-free life here in Warsaw, I encounter sidewalks every day. And I’m not only walking more personally, but I’m giving more thought to various modes of transportation. Though the Poles love their cars, I’m thankful that they’re wise enough to think ahead and budget for the miles of walkable, skid-proof pedestrian lanes. This significant investment for today and tomorrow will no doubt be appreciated more with each passing year as people here and around the world walk more and drive less.