Presenter: Jamie Spinney
Authors: Brock Anderson, Jamie Spinney
Faculty Advisor: Jamie Spinney
Institution: Southern Utah University
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the most comprehensive law governing accessibility and requires local governments to develop transition plans to become compliant. Among the key ADA requirements is a continuous unobstructed pedestrian circulation network that is comprised of a sidewalk that has a cross slope of no more than two degrees. The Access Board (1998) states that “excessive cross slope is the single greatest barrier to travel along sidewalks and shared-use paths for pedestrians who use wheelchairs and scooters, pedestrians who use walkers and crutches, pedestrians who have braces or lower-limb prostheses, and those with gait, balance, and stamina impairments”. The primary objective of this project is to evaluate whether sidewalk cross slopes in Cedar City are ADA complaint. A secondary objective is to determine whether there is evidence of social inequities in Cedar City’s pedestrian environment. A digital level will be used to measure a random sample of driveway cross slopes. Additionally, the assessed value of each home (a proxy for income) will be retrieved from Zillow® to evaluate the statistical relationship between incomes and cross slopes. The results of this project will enable the identification of priority areas for sidewalk improvements and policy recommendations for sidewalk maintenance, enhancements, and funding.