What's Wrong With Removing Sidewalks in the Name of Pedestrian Safety?

"Louisville’s Ninth Street Divide just got a little bit wider, and Downtown Louisville a little less walkable," according to an article by Branden Klayko. More specifically: "During a street repaving project, two small pieces of sidewalk in the median of Ninth Street (aka Roy Wilkins Boulevard) at Magazine Street were removed, and engineers from Metro Louisville Public Works say the move is ab [sic] effort to increase safety because there’s no traffic signal at the intersection."

Klayko proceeds to a scathing critique of the reasoning behind the decision, extending the blame for the lack of priority given to pedestrians to laws throughout the state, not just in Louisville.

Angie Schmitt picked the story up for Streetsblog, noting Louisville's high rate of pedestrian fatalities (four times the number per capita as Washington, D.C.). Klayko updated his story after Streetsblog brought focus to the project to note that readers had pointed out the potential ADA violations of the redesign.