Quote:PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia official wants the city council to look at whether the city's sidewalks should be made of rubber.

City councilman Jim Kenney recently toured Chicago to see environmentally-friendly city projects there. He came back with a number of ideas on which he plans to hold hearings.

One is using rubber for sidewalks.

No, don't expect to see people bouncing down the street. Kenney says the rubber is very solid — probably harder than a running track.

He says rubber sidewalks are made from recycled tires. They don't crack, and they last longer than concrete.

Kenney says rubber sidewalks could also reduce the number of slip-and-fall accidents and the resulting lawsuits.

Quote:New Rubber Sidewalks Easier on the Joints

By DERRILL HOLLY
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; 1:10 AM

WASHINGTON -- Pounding the pavement is getting a little easier on people's knees in many cities around the country. For reasons of safety and ease of maintenance, Washington and dozens of other communities are installing rubber sidewalks made of ground-up tires.

The rubber squares are up to three times more expensive than concrete slabs but last longer, because tree roots and freezing weather won't crack them. That, in turn, could reduce the number of slip-and-fall lawsuits filed over uneven pavement.


A rubberized sidewalk surrounds a large tree on Rhode Island Ave. in Washington on Friday, July 7, 2006. Dozens of communities around the country are turning to rubberized sidewalks as they face shrinking landfill space and a maturing urban landscape. The move is also helping make sidewalks softer and better for the people who run and walk on them. (AP Photo/Leslie E. Kossoff)
A rubberized sidewalk surrounds a large tree on Rhode Island Ave. in Washington on Friday, July 7, 2006. Dozens of communities around the country are turning to rubberized sidewalks as they face shrinking landfill space and a maturing urban landscape. The move is also helping make sidewalks softer and better for the people who run and walk on them. (AP Photo/Leslie E. Kossoff) (Leslie E. Kossoff - AP)


The shock-absorbing surface also happens to be easier on the joints of joggers, and more forgiving when someone takes a spill.

And the rubber sidewalks are considered more environmentally friendly: They offer a way to recycle some of the estimated 290 million tires thrown out each year in the U.S., and they do not constrict tree roots the way concrete slabs do.

"As our trees grow and mature sometimes the root systems begin to pull up the sidewalks," said Michelle L. Pourciau, acting director of the D.C. Transportation Department. "This is compromise between having a beautiful and healthy tree and having a safe and passable sidewalk."

Rubbersidewalks Inc. of Gardena, Calif., manufactures the small rubberized squares now being used on some sidewalks in more than 60 cities, including Washington.

Since 2001, Rubbersidewalks has been grinding thousands of old tires into crumbs, adding chemical binders, and baking the material into sidewalk sections that weigh under 11 pounds per square foot, or a quarter of the weight of concrete. The panels are available in two shades of gray and a terra cotta orange.

Many of the squares have been installed in areas where damage from tree roots, weather and snow removal have required sidewalk replacement or major repairs every three years, said Lindsay Smith, founder and president of Rubbersidewalks. Rubber sidewalks are expected to last seven years or more, Smith said.

The District of Columbia has spent about $60,000 to replace broken concrete with the rubberized panels here and there in a residential neighborhood northeast of the Capitol where towering willow oaks line the street.

"Maybe we won't have to worry about the cracks in the sidewalk when the seasons change," Charlene Baker said as she walked with her daughter. She added: "If this helps save the trees, that would be a good thing."

The panels are firmer than a running track or a rubberized playground, but far more resilient than concrete.

Dr. Frank Kelly, a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Macon, Ga., said people walking on the surface would be less vulnerable to heel spurs and knee and back problems.

In 2004, the sidewalks in front of two homes in New Rochelle, N.Y., were replaced after roots repeatedly caused concrete cracking and heaving. The rubber panels have withstood two winters of snow shoveling, rock salt and repeated freezing and thawing.

"Some of these trees are close to 100 years old and we wouldn't want to take them down," said Jeffrey Coleman, New Rochelle's commissioner of public works.

About 100 feet of rubber sidewalk was installed in a town square-style shopping area in Tallahassee, Fla., in 2003 as a temporary measure after a major root pruning project.

"They wanted that to be in place for a year before we came back and put the concrete in," said Tom Lewis, the city's street maintenance and construction supervisor, "but the rubber has held up so well, we've just left it out there."

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On the Net:

Rubbersidewalks Inc.: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rubbersidewalks.com">http://www.rubbersidewalks.com</a><!-- m -->

Paper Boy Wrote:what happens when it snows? snow shovels are going to dig right into the rubber and chew it up.

Quote:Because the future first involves humans re-embracing the idea of walking to the store, instead of driving to the store. Most answers to the problem of urban sprawl is to reduce the need for driving by re-intoducing local businesses and amenities into pre-existing neighborhoods, and making communities more walkable by recognizing that the furthest a person will walk to get to a particular destination is 500 feet before they will choose to drive their instead. Part of this solution means re-construction of footpaths and sidewalks. The future also involves making better use of refuse as raw material, and the reconstitution of tires as pavement for a walking surface is both beautiful in an ironic and sustainable way.