Paving tiles are so much easier to repair, pull & replace for utility work & #tree root care, and rearrange for new road layouts than #asphalt or #concrete.
Tiles are cheaper, can embed rather than spew #carbon, and provide drainage.
Photo next to #transit hub in #Lund #Sweden. White crosswalk pavers in arc of gray pavers. Smooth enough for #disability & #bike use. Perfect for #transit speed.
And pavers can hold the weight of a #bus.
#PavingTiles for the win!
@jeffbyrnes @dx @jamesbicycle Sweden is cold, clears snow effectively, and takes good care of the mobility of its people with disabilities.
Many central cities in Sweden are cobbled. I don't know specs of how 🇸🇪 snow clearing works but it worked quite well all thru the winter I lived there.
Swedish friends who worked in disability mobility told me these cobbled streets worked well for walking & rolling.
US cities may have a different standard of bumpy cobble that might not be as forgiving.
@CathyTuttle @dx @jamesbicycle great to hear! I live in Somerville, MA, USA, & one of our major gathering/commerce areas used a lot of brick when it was last rebuilt. That brick is not great, esp. for folks who roll primarily.
I’d love to advocate for something attractive like pavers that’s not anti-disability, so this is super helpful!
@jeffbyrnes @dx @jamesbicycle
Story about a city that doesn't deal w snow, but still relevant. #Pontevedra, an entirely car-free city center in western #Spain, is mostly streets made of stone and concrete pavers.
I walked around the center (population ~40,000) with chief city planner who says visitors often ask him why the city has so many people using #wheelchairs.
“We have the same numbers of #disabled people as any city,” he says. “But here ALL people can easily use our public streets.”
@CathyTuttle
Don't know re USA. The "dry cold" part of Canad. It was close to freezing 2-3 weeks ago then 10 days below -30°C, warmed up to -15 today. The snow sticks to the roads and walkways unless immediately removed. There are only a few places with bricks. Graders might remove some of them.
This is a grader in my city: http://i.cbc.ca/1.3336867.1448480290!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/snow-grader.JPG
@jeffbyrnes
Snow removal. And where the snow gets removed from first:
Typical: car routes for work commuting for proportionately more men
Equity: walking routes for children and proportionately more women who're taking the kids to school
@indri @CathyTuttle ashphalt is basically oil. It has slag, a waste material from steel making as the pebbles. I think there are better options. Using stone made the Appian Way last 2000 years.
The only fossil fuel based material I like for roads is recycled plastic to get rid of it as that is a very long-lasting material - far better than using new oil.
We have to end the use of fossil fuels and different roading is part of that
@indri @CathyTuttle But just "having to come from somewhere, too" is not the problem with asphalt roads.
Continuing to use oil as roading surfaces perpetuates the use of fossil fuels, endangering our climate.
And stone lasts 2,000 years or more. (The Appian Way) So it is very sustainable despite coming from somewhere. At least it remains pretty much forever somewhere else.
@DistrictDave01 Pavers in Lund are bumpy on bikes, but they are well installed and not as bad as many cracked and potholed PDX streets. The whole center ring of Lund is cobbled. In this shared environment going fast by bike isn't a good option anyway. Asphalt paths led to the center.
Swedish friends who work in disability access say these are good streets.
Don't know specifics of snow plows, but I lived here through a winter. Snow wasn't a problem. Maybe plows set at a higher scrape level?
@SusanKraemer I keep watching a friend's Instagram feed of roller skating through the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. Mesmerizing, beautiful skating, much on streets paved with smooth stone, marble blocks, small pavers.
The USA reliance solely on roads that are concrete or asphalt, or asphalt or concrete, or maybe, if we're being extra bold, a little stone curb, is limiting, unimaginative, and insensitive to place or need. We can do so much better!
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@CathyTuttle I don't understand how this would work with snow plows. The plows already rip up asphalt roads badly enough—I'm pretty sure this is why the uphill lane on local roads has more damage than the downhill lane—and with this it seems they'd just be chucking pavers left and right.
What kind of winter precip do they get there? Is it the icy/wet snow kind or really dry stuff? Here it's largely the former. I can imagine just *brushing* the latter off the road.
Eric Herot
Cathy Tuttle
Aaron
dr jamesbicycle
🚲
Jeff Byrnes
indri
Susan 
DistrictDave01
Tim McCormack
Anders Örtegren