The fun part is that it makes it that much harder to get around for those of us with disabilities. There are parts of my hometown that are much like this, and walking is difficult for me there (just compare: flat, even surface, vs. bumpy, uneven, unpredictable surface). I can only imagine what it would be like if you had arthritic knees or required a wheelchair.

More and more every day I understand the social model of disability.

Route 7 in Northern Virginia is a disaster for pedestrians and cyclists for most of its length. I've been complaining for years that there is no safe way to cross the beltway at the Tyson's Corner area. I see people taking their lives in their hands to do it, with cars and truck whizzing out of the many beltway exits and entrances. A pedestian bridge or tunnel is sorely needed. The Bailey's Crossroads area, near where many immigrants live, has also become a duckpin alley for people running across the road.

Dare I suggest that perhaps the federal government has enough on its plate without worrying about sidewalks and pedestrian and bicycle friendly thoroughfares?

As someone who does not drive and often is put in danger by this kind of thoughtless planning, I would love to have more sidewalks and bike paths.

However, I'll never understand why so many liberals feel that local and state politicians are unqualified to make these kinds of decisions but federal politicians are somehow.

One thing that would help is if new developments were built with connecting pathways to adjacent developments, or to the space where an adjacent development will eventually in all likelihood be.

So often, two neighborhoods back up to one another, and there's no way for kids in one neighborhood to get to the other without either (a) cutting through a couple of yards, or (b) going the long way around, which is usually a trip of a few miles' length, and involves walking or bicycling along arterial roads.

Partly this strikes me as the Californication (pardon me, Red Hot Chili Peppers) of the East - when you think everybody drive, who needs pedestrian walkways?

Partly this strikes me as the legacy of the south's lack of reliance on zoning - this problem doesn't seem to be nearly as widespread further north, where people have stricter zoning rules.

Finally, this partly strikes me as yet another piece of the debate about pushing working class people - the ones without cars - into the suburbs and exurbs, which were never designed for what they now have: workers who use substantial public transportation and who walk to a lot of places. I agree that this is a problem for local governments to solve, but on a larger level, the issue of what we've built out in the suburbs is getting hard to ignore.

I grew up in Loudoun County, and left before the recent huge surge there. The pedestrian situation is bad, but I wonder about that 14% number. The road I grew up on was a dirt road, which is actually okay for an able-bodied pedestrian even without a sidewalk. I wonder what fraction of those 840 miles are such roads in the rural part of the county, versus the brachial pavement in the new developments.

Nathan, note the phrase "able-bodied" that you use. The article also discusses how this makes it impossible for people with disabilities to get around without a car.