Suburbs: Walk This Way

"Suburbanites...have a greater number of pedestrian-friendly choices today than they might have had in the past. Faced with growing concerns about the byproducts of a car-centric culture -- social isolation, roadside dangers and just plain lethargy -- planners and developers in the subdivision suburbs are placing a new emphasis on sidewalks.

At BelleFair, a planned community in Rye Brook, residents stroll along an expansive web of sidewalks and footpaths to the meetinghouse and deli at the center of the development. In Yorktown, officials are planning a sidewalk that will connect a senior housing development to a commercial center. And in Edgemont, a well-to-do section of Greenburgh, parents are clamoring for a sidewalk on a sometimes treacherous stretch of road leading to an elementary school.

The trend is by no means universal. Plenty of suburbanites find that their houses of worship and children's schools provide all the community they need. But Jeffrey Zupan, a Rockland County resident who is senior fellow for transportation at the Regional Plan Association in New York, said there was a yearning in some quarters for a life beyond car, office and living room."

Thanks to Brad Kahn