A stretch of Shelbyville Road in Middletown dominated by auto-centric sprawl is fixing a gap in the sidewalk network in front of a massive strip mall. After Kroger expanded on the site and built a segment of sidewalk required by the city, a 260-foot void was still left in front of a Taco Bell drive-thru. District 19 Councilman Jerry T. Miller announced last week that Metro Council’s Appropriations Committee has approved $9,000 in funds to construct the remaining segment.
While building missing pieces of sidewalk is good news, the larger problem still remains. This block now physically allows walking, but it is still a far cry from being walkable. Hopefully there’s a way to walk from the sidewalk to the actual strip mall, which isn’t clear from viewing the Lojic map (after the jump). Holes still exist in sidewalk coverage along Shelbyville Road and deep trenches in places make connectivity difficult. The street itself is a six-lane auto-ghetto (road diet anyone?) with buildings spaced so far apart and housing so far from commerce that walking is still nearly impossible.
