The Benefits of Well-Maintained Sidewalks, and How AI Can Be Used to Make Them Better

Benefits are related to both health and the environment for everyone, but high-quality sidewalks are also particularly crucial for people with mobility issues

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

For most of us, what is the cheapest and easiest way to get around? Walking, right? With that in mind, your Ride On writers feel the benefits of high-quality sidewalks are underappreciated despite most of us depending on them to walk outside safely.

For a case in point, we remember once attending a friend’s birthday party at a Calgary restaurant, and our walk from the closest bus stop to that restaurant had no sidewalks on either side of the road. We were able to walk on the grass instead, but this would have been more difficult if we had to walk through snow and ice. We have indeed experienced times in the winter when it was much easier to walk on the road, stepping up into the snow whenever we needed to get out of traffic’s way.

Therefore, the purpose of this issue of Ride On is to look into research done on the benefits of sidewalks, as well as the costs of them being poorly maintained, for people in general but especially people with mobility issues. We will also look at how AI can be used to collect useful data on sidewalks.

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