A lot of the work I’ve done so far is to try and understand how a decision like this would get made, and how the different municipalities work internally and with each other. The first thing I found was that this is a County road, so they would do the work to add the crosswalks. However the decision starts at the Town level, who will make a recommendation to the County.

I don’t think anyone is really “against” crosswalks, but some do find a reason that it should not be done. The #1 obstacle I have found so far is the notion that crosswalks cannot be added until there are sidewalks for them to go to. In this case, the crosswalks are providing access to light traffic side streets that do not need sidewalks. Sidewalks would be great, but these are existing neighborhoods and nobody that I know of is advocating to add them. It is a bridge too far, and would only sandbag our efforts (which depending on who you talk to might be the goal).

The crosswalks must be ADA compliant, and do require curb ramps and a landing on each side. This can be a simple ramp a small section of sidewalk that spills out into the road once you are safely into the neighborhoods. This part of the work is done by the Town, not the County – though the same engineer probably does both parts of the design in the end.

This dynamic sets up a situation where the County says they need sidewalks before adding a crosswalk, and the Town will not recommend a crosswalk because there are no sidewalks.