Charlottesville, VA

Someone named faceless b has shared a curb cut to nowhere in Charlottesville, Virginia

From Michigan Bicyclists' photo stream

No details on where this is, but thanks to whoever posted to the bikers' photo stream.

Kunstler's Eyesore of the Month for November

Playing a little catch-up here, but thanks to a friend who showed me this link for the November Eyesore of the Month.

Real "curb cuts to nowhere" news from Pennsylvania

Some residents in Maidencreek Township, Pennsylvania, are upset at a project that installs curb cuts in the middle of nowhere.
Officials acknowledged that the cuts are required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (a noble cause, if sometimes not practical, such as in these cases), but, said one lawmaker:

We don't have enough money to fix our roads and bridges, so it's crazy to be building sidewalks to nowhere.

Meanwhile, it seems the matter has drawn the attention of the Reading Eagle, which editorialized on the topic.

New report on rural pedestrian deaths

Transportation for America reports that in high-traffic areas without sidewalks, pedestrian deaths are epidemic, about 1,000 a year, especially in resort areas. Which goes back to my original point that if you have curb cuts to nowhere, you can install sidewalks.

Entire roads to nowhere?

Not quite that dramatic, but here's a Yahoo Finance report on cities that are dramatically losing population.

Street signs: Flap, flip-flop, etc.

Again, apologies for the slow chronicles here, but I've been fascinated in recent days with the brouhaha over whether the BIG FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is foisting a new street signs policy on unsuspecting communities.
I'll share a few links, but the short version is that an apparently obscure law that is due to go into effect in January 2012 would require street signs to be replaced with new ones that have better reflecting capabilities in the dark and in the rain, and that would feature upper- and lower-case letters to make it easier for older Americans to read.
This reminds me of curb cuts to nowhere -- installing curb cuts in redesigned/reconfigured intersections were no good pedestrian would dare stroll -- in that the government thinks one size fits all. It might be prudent to replace old, decaying street signs with the newer supposedly snazzier models, but change for change's sake is imprudent in these tight economic times (except maybe for the sign makers; more on that later).
At any rate, among the many links on this brewing controversy (author's note: does "brewing controversy" need to be in quotes) are from CBS News,
Fox News, The Trucker, and The Reason magazine (Pic comes from Reason website, by the way)


By the way, one interesting tidbit that has come out of this is the fact that signmakers, not so surprising, are behind the push for the changes:

The American Traffic Safety Services Association -- which represents companies that make signs and the reflective material used on them -- lobbied hard for the new rules. And at least one key study used to justify the changes was funded by the 3M Corporation, one of the few companies that make the reflective material now required on street signs.