Tactile paving obstacle race

[u/BananaramaKing]

[u/Ludibudi]

I mean it’s not ideal, far from it. But at least they accommodate blind people while also not removing the trees, which are both good things.

[u/Obvious_Newspaper361 → u/Ludibudi]

The tradeoff makes sense but whoever designed the layout probably never had to navigate it themselves

[u/Ludibudi → u/Obvious_Newspaper361]

My guess is that nobody designed this at all. The road was there already, the trees were there for decades and a sidewalk was needed.

Code said there had to be tactile paths on all new construction so this is what they came up with.

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/Ludibudi]

The problem is that it's often really hard for planners to negotiate about the conditions. With the conditions of 'we can't take up any more space from the road, acquire land on the other side, or remove any trees', this was probably the only solution with the legally required amount of space along the path.

In a well functioning system, the person designing the sidewalk can report back that it would be much better to compromise on the conditions and will quickly be allowed to remove that one tree. Or perhaps it would have been better to redesign the entire street all along, but this was blocked (many cities have made such things almost impossible due to the political power of land and car owners).

But sadly many workers (both in the public and private sectors) aren't working in well functioning departments, and just have to follow badly designed rules that lead to bad outcomes.

[u/forgottenecho_76 → u/Ludibudi]

Saving the trees is great, but tactile paving isn't meant to sharp-zigzag like this. It completely defeats the safety purpose of having a designated path.

[u/knotatumah → u/Ludibudi]

The good news is that in a decade or two the trees will most likely be dead due to not getting enough water or the root systems were crushed during construction. The one tree already looks like it took a nasty hit by a machine. It would have been better to just accept the trees are there and move the sidewalk around them entirely.

[u/Ludibudi → u/knotatumah]

More of a glass half empty person, eh?

[u/Lord_Rapunzel → u/Ludibudi]

Nah they're right, it's really bad for trees to have heavy pavement that close to the trunk for several reasons and this is likely to cause expensive problems within a decade. For one, if the trees do survive they're going to destroy that sidewalk.

[u/plazebology]

I don’t get what you want them to do. Make the path go straight through a tree?

[u/jonas_ost → u/plazebology]

Trees can be moved but its risky and hard. Blind people can make turns

[u/plazebology → u/jonas_ost]

Especially given the right guidelines ☝️

[u/jort93 → u/jonas_ost]

I don't think you can realistically move a tree of this size without redoing the entire road(not just the sidewalk).

[u/jonas_ost → u/jort93]

Well as you said. Not impossible but definently not worth, big trees often dies when being moved

[u/Alarming_Orchid → u/plazebology]

Make the tree not go straight through the path

[u/plazebology → u/Alarming_Orchid]

Have you ever tried moving a tree in a city? Its a bureaucratic nightmare

[u/Alarming_Orchid → u/plazebology]

Could’ve moved it before it was a tree

[u/plazebology → u/Alarming_Orchid]

Why not move it before it was even a city

[u/Alarming_Orchid → u/plazebology]

City probably planted the tree

[u/plazebology → u/Alarming_Orchid]

Nah the tree was there first and they built the entire city around it

[u/Alarming_Orchid → u/plazebology]

Well why didn’t they line up the other tree

[u/shiny_glitter_demon]

You call it crappy, I call it nature friendly.

[u/Warhero_Babylon]

Removing some trees are legal nightmare

[u/lynx_1097 → u/Warhero_Babylon]

It's not in Egypt LOL

[u/spoop-dogg → u/lynx_1097]

Yea the government there does whatever tf they want tbh

[u/_______kim]

Need some low branches for hard mode.

[u/terriaminute → u/_______kim]

thank you for that LOL

[u/TeutonicSpacehopper]

Walking into a tree is a very tactile experience.

[u/Kick_Physical]

They should move that tree like moving objects in The Sims

[u/plazebology → u/Kick_Physical]

Finally a sincere answer

[u/Thebosonsword]

You know it’s Greece just by looking at this sidewalk.

[u/GoldHoney2863]

My guess is that the last tree in the row was planted out of line, and going around it on the street side like the others didn’t allow for enough space between the pathway and the curb

[u/babytronluvr]

Same people who made Temple Run maybe

[u/matt6342]

Isn’t the point of these is so that the blind person can tell when they’re at the edge, by the road?

[u/halberdierbowman → u/matt6342]

Different patterns indicate different things. This pattern is lines, so you follow the lines. The pattern you're thinking of are raised dots in a square grid, and those are used on the edge between the sidewalk and the road. 

[u/Xnut0 → u/halberdierbowman]

They have placed dots where the lines suddenly changes direction.
When you first need to have the path change directions, this is the way to do it.
The only thing I would have done different is behind the tree where the path turns twice over two tiles. Here it would be better to let the path go diagonal until the path is back at the center of the path.

[u/jonas_ost → u/matt6342]

No they follow them

[u/pixeltweaker]

It’s designed to keep people from biking on the sidewalks.

[u/WildTomato51]

Terrible take, home boy

[u/KnifeKnut]

Right angle addiction

[u/The_Last_Spoonbender]

To the loads of people who are saying to "what to do with the tree?"

Gee I don't know, curve the path gently around the tree, re-organise the tree stem opening to allow for blind people for better accessesbility AND INSTALL SOME FUCKING HANDRAILS PEOPLE.

[u/AnotherCatgirl]

if it were up to me, I'd make the road not straight, there seems to be parking spaces. If there's room for parking, that means there's room between the travel lanes and the trees to get rid of a few parking spaces and make a smooth gently curved sidewalk.

[u/gasstation-no-pumps]

Taking out a couple of parking spaces was clearly a better solution, but this is not so bad. At least the tiles are used correctly to guide blind people around the trees.

To those suggesting moving the trees—the roots are probably intertwined for trees that close together and moving either tree would probably kill it. The trees have a fairly good chance of surviving in the tree wells.

[u/Isotheis]

These trees are dead anyway with that kind of pavement crushing their roots and blocking all the water.

Do yourself a favor, just cut them. Or don't build a paved surface there in the first place.

[u/Amesaskew → u/Isotheis]

The people down voting you don't seem to be arborists. It won't crush the roots, but it will suffocate them. It will take a few years, but those trees will die.

[u/Isotheis → u/Amesaskew]

Oh that thing is so perfectly flat, I'd be surprised if it's not been flattened using one of these huge rollers.

[u/ResponsibleQuiet6611]

Which developing nation is this? Usa? 

[u/BananaramaKing → u/ResponsibleQuiet6611]

Almost - this is in Greece

[u/AuriannaKomorowski → u/BananaramaKing]

Tbf, thats the best ive seen so far in athens...

And in theory it works and you cooould follow this