This recently-improved, four-lane road (not in Garland) has new sidwalks next to fast-moving traffic, mailboxes embedded into the walk way, retaining walls that force pedestrians closer to the street, and driveway crossings that discourage use. Across the street (where residents are in Garland), some mailboxes are in the middle of the sidewalk.

 
There have been significant strides in thoroughfare design in recent years that allow traffic, transit, bicycles, and pedestrians to co-exist more safely in a common right of way. The improved corridors are boosting the use and the appreciation of such streets.
 
After being ignored for decades, attention to pedestrians has gained new design guidelines.
 
The recently-adopted Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares Manual published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers recognizes multiple zones in the right of way. Throughway zones are intended for pedestrian travel only, should be entirely clear of obstacles, and provide a smooth walking surface. The frontage zone is the space between the pedestrian throughway and building faces or private property. At a minimum it provides a buffer distance from vertical surfaces or walls and allows people to window shop or enter/exit buildings without interfering with moving pedestrians.
 
The minimum width recommended for the throughway in a residential area is five feet for the sidewalk, with a three-foot edge zone at the curb for plantings, utilities, mailboxes, etc., and another foot on the other side for the frontage zone next to the right of way line. That's nine feet in a constrained environment. The recommended width, for suburban areas with residential frontage, is over fifteen feet. Ideally, the sidewalk would be at least nine feet away from the street and its traffic.
 

Graphic from Federal Transportation Administration's Sidewalk Design Guidelines and Existing Practices

Yet along Murphy Rd, which has recently been widened and sidewalks introduced for the first time, the width for pedestrians is five feet at best. The road is not in Garland but is a District 1 boundary street with another municipality. The Garland city limits start at the western edge of the right of way. The county led the construction efforts.
 
In fairness, the road hasn't been walkable since cars replaced horses. Now that sidewalks have been at last constructed, they are to the edge of the street next to often-heavy, fast-moving traffic. The pedestrian pathway is blocked by mailboxes spaced as regularly as houses. Not in this particular picture but some mailboxes are literally in the middle of the sidewalk and some are large brick monoliths (one can be seen above in the background). Retaining walls limit escape routes for pedestrians and make the sidewalks unusable for someone in a wheelchair.
 
I'm sure right of way constraints and limited funds for acquiring more figured prominently into the decisions on widths but often no job is better than a poor job. In this case, it would seem that the money spent to construct these sidewalks was completely wasted. The worst case scenario is that they might actually attract pedestrians. I wouldn't use this sidewalk and I wouldn't let my son (except to take a picture and with clear instructions to jump before the cars got close).
 
Simply said, we can't keep building streets this way. We forfeit the opportunity to construct a corridor that works well and we waste money for having made a bad effort.
 
The Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares Manual is a joint effort of ITE and the Congress for the New Urbanism. It has been adopted by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the first state to do so. Robert Wunderlich, Garland's managing director of transportation and engineering, is ITE's vice president and will be installed as president in January.