Roller skates
Roller skates are shoes, or bindings that fit onto shoes, that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade; the "quad" style of roller skate became more popular consisting of four wheels arranged in the same configuration as a typical car. While the first reported use of roller skates was on a London stage in 1743, the first patented roller skate was introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin, his roller skate wasn't much more than an ice skate with wheels where the blade goes, a style we would call inline today. They were hard to steer and hard to stop because they didn't have brakes and, as such, were not popular; the initial "test piloting" of the first prototype of the skate was in the city of Huy, which had a party with Merlin playing the violin. In the 1840s, Meyerbeer's Opera, Le prophète featured a scene in which performers used roller-skates to simulate ice-skating on a frozen lake set on stage.
The result was to popularize roller skating throughout the Continent. As ice skaters subsequently developed the art of figure skating, roller skaters wanted the ability to turn in their skates in a similar fashion. In 1863, James Plimpton from Massachusetts invented the "rocking" skate and used a four-wheel configuration for stability, independent axles that turned by pressing to one side of the skate or the other when the skater wants to create an edge; this was a vast improvement on the Merlin design, easier to use and drove the huge popularity of roller skating, dubbed "rinkomania" in the 1860s and 1870s, which spread to Europe and around the world, continued through the 1930s. The Plimpton skate is still used today. Roller skating evolved from just a pastime to a competitive sport. In the mid 1990s roller hockey, played with a ball rather than a puck, became so popular that it made an appearance in the Olympics in 1992; the National Sporting Goods Association statistics showed, from a 1999 study, that 2.5 million people played roller hockey.
Roller Skating has never become an Olympic event. Other roller skating sports include roller derby. Roller skating popularity tapered off in the 80s and 90s; the Roller Skating Rink Operators Association was developed in the U. S in 1937, it is named the Roller Skating Association. The association promotes roller skating and offers classes to the public, aiming to educate the population about roller skating; the current president is Bobby Pender. The Roller Skating Association headquarters is located in Indianapolis; the Roller Skating Association's web page offers some health benefits of roller skating. Some of the benefits they list include: Providing a complete aerobic workout Burning 330 calories per hour while skating 6 miles per hour for a 143-pound person or 600 calories while skating 10 miles per hour. A study from the University of Massachusetts found that in-line skating causes less than 50% of the impact shock to joints compared to running. Roller skating is equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits The American Heart Association recommends roller skating as an aerobic fitness sport.
Roller skating Inline skates Ice skates Roller shoe "How Rink Rollers Are Made", by George W. Waltz – November 1951 article on how roller skates are manufactured Court Case Brought by Roller Skating Rinks About Taxes History of Roller Skating In Canada homepage for USA Roller Sports Roller Skating Museum
Bicycle
A bicycle called a cycle or bike, is a human-powered or motor-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called bicyclist. Bicycles were introduced in the late 19th century in Europe, by the early 21st century, more than 1 billion were in existence at a given time; these numbers far exceed the number of cars, both in total and ranked by the number of individual models produced. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions, they provide a popular form of recreation, have been adapted for use as children's toys, general fitness and police applications, courier services, bicycle racing and bicycle stunts. The basic shape and configuration of a typical upright or "safety bicycle", has changed little since the first chain-driven model was developed around 1885. However, many details have been improved since the advent of modern materials and computer-aided design; these have allowed for a proliferation of specialized designs for many types of cycling.
The bicycle's invention has had an enormous effect on society, both in terms of culture and of advancing modern industrial methods. Several components that played a key role in the development of the automobile were invented for use in the bicycle, including ball bearings, pneumatic tires, chain-driven sprockets and tension-spoked wheels; the word bicycle first appeared in English print in The Daily News in 1868, to describe "Bysicles and trysicles" on the "Champs Elysées and Bois de Boulogne". The word was first used in 1847 in a French publication to describe an unidentified two-wheeled vehicle a carriage; the design of the bicycle was an advance on the velocipede, although the words were used with some degree of overlap for a time. Other words for bicycle include "bike", "pushbike", "pedal cycle", or "cycle". In Unicode, the code point for "bicycle" is 0x1F6B2; the entity 🚲. The "Dandy horse" called Draisienne or Laufmaschine, was the first human means of transport to use only two wheels in tandem and was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais.
It is regarded as the modern bicycle's forerunner. Its rider sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along with his or her feet while steering the front wheel; the first mechanically-propelled, two-wheeled vehicle may have been built by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839, although the claim is disputed. He is associated with the first recorded instance of a cycling traffic offense, when a Glasgow newspaper in 1842 reported an accident in which an anonymous "gentleman from Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" knocked over a little girl in Glasgow and was fined five shillings. In the early 1860s, Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement took bicycle design in a new direction by adding a mechanical crank drive with pedals on an enlarged front wheel; this was the first in mass production. Another French inventor named Douglas Grasso had a failed prototype of Pierre Lallement's bicycle several years earlier.
Several inventions followed using rear-wheel drive, the best known being the rod-driven velocipede by Scotsman Thomas McCall in 1869. In that same year, bicycle wheels with wire spokes were patented by Eugène Meyer of Paris; the French vélocipède, made of iron and wood, developed into the "penny-farthing". It featured a tubular steel frame on; these bicycles were difficult to ride due to poor weight distribution. In 1868 Rowley Turner, a sales agent of the Coventry Sewing Machine Company, brought a Michaux cycle to Coventry, England, his uncle, Josiah Turner, business partner James Starley, used this as a basis for the'Coventry Model' in what became Britain's first cycle factory. The dwarf ordinary addressed some of these faults by reducing the front wheel diameter and setting the seat further back. This, in turn, required gearing—effected in a variety of ways—to efficiently use pedal power. Having to both pedal and steer via the front wheel remained a problem. Englishman J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain drive, connecting the frame-mounted cranks to the rear wheel.
These models were known as safety bicycles, dwarf safeties, or upright bicycles for their lower seat height and better weight distribution, although without pneumatic tires the ride of the smaller-wheeled bicycle would be much rougher than that of the larger-wheeled variety. Starley's 1885 Rover, manufactured in Coventry is described as the first recognizably modern bicycle. Soon the seat tube was added. Further innovations increased comfort and ushered in a second bicycle craze, the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles. In 1888, Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the first practical pneumatic tire, which soon became universal. Willie Hume demonstrated the supremacy of Dunlop's tyres in 1889, winning the tyre's first-ever races in Ireland and England. Soon after, the rear freewheel was developed; this refinement led to the 1890s invention of coaster brakes. Dérailleur gears and hand-operated Bowden cable-pull brakes were developed during these years, but were only adopted by casual riders; the Svea Velocipede with vertical pedal arrangement and
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, or disability. Wheelchairs come in a wide variety of formats to meet the specific needs of their users, they may include specialized seating adaptions, individualized controls, may be specific to particular activities, as seen with sports wheelchairs and beach wheelchairs. The most recognised distinction is between powered wheelchairs, where propulsion is provided by batteries and electric motors, manually propelled wheelchairs, where the propulsive force is provided either by the wheelchair user/occupant pushing the wheelchair by hand, or by an attendant pushing from the rear; the earliest records of wheeled furniture are an inscription found on a stone slate in China and a child's bed depicted in a frieze on a Greek vase, both dating between the 6th and 5th century BCE. The first records of wheeled seats being used for transporting disabled people date to three centuries in China. A distinction between the two functions was not made for another several hundred years, until around 525 CE, when images of wheeled chairs made to carry people begin to occur in Chinese art.
Although Europeans developed a similar design, this method of transportation did not exist until 1595 when an unknown inventor from Spain built one for King Phillip II. Although it was an elaborate chair having both armrests and leg rests, the design still had shortcomings since it did not feature an efficient propulsion mechanism and thus, requires assistance to propel it; this makes the design more of a modern-day highchair or portable throne for the wealthy rather than a modern-day wheelchair for the disabled. In 1655, Stephan Farffler, a 22-year-old paraplegic watchmaker, built the world's first self-propelling chair on a three-wheel chassis using a system of cranks and cogwheels. However, the device had an appearance of a hand bike more than a wheelchair since the design included hand cranks mounted at the front wheel; the invalid carriage or Bath chair brought the technology into more common use from around 1760. In 1887, wheelchairs were introduced to Atlantic City so invalid tourists could rent them to enjoy the Boardwalk.
Soon, many healthy tourists rented the decorated "rolling chairs" and servants to push them as a show of decadence and treatment they could never experience at home. In 1933 Harry C. Jennings, Sr. and his disabled friend Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, folding, portable wheelchair. Everest had broken his back in a mining accident. Everest and Jennings saw the business potential of the invention and went on to become the first mass-market manufacturers of wheelchairs, their "X-brace" design is still albeit with updated materials and other improvements. The X-brace idea came to Harry from the men’s folding “camp chairs / stools”, rotated 90 degrees, that Harry and Herbert used in the outdoors and at the mines. There are a wide variety of types of wheelchair, differing by propulsion method, mechanisms of control, technology used; some wheelchairs are designed for general everyday use, others for single activities, or to address specific access needs. Innovation within the wheelchair industry is common, but many innovations fall by the wayside, either from over-specialization, or from failing to come to market at an accessible price-point.
The iBot is the best known example of this in recent years. A self-propelled manual wheelchair incorporates a frame, one or two footplates and four wheels: two caster wheels at the front and two large wheels at the back. There will also be a separate seat cushion; the larger rear wheels have push-rims of smaller diameter projecting just beyond the tyre. Manual wheelchairs have brakes that bear on the tyres of the rear wheels, however these are a parking brake and in-motion braking is provided by the user's palms bearing directly on the push-rims; as this causes friction and heat build-up on long downslopes, many wheelchair users will choose to wear padded wheelchair gloves. Manual wheelchairs have two push handles at the upper rear of the frame to allow for manual propulsion by a second person, however many active wheelchair users will remove these to prevent unwanted pushing from people who believe they are being helpful. Everyday manual wheelchairs come in two major varieties, folding or rigid.
Folding chairs are low-end designs, whose predominant advantage is being able to fold by bringing the two sides together. However this is an advantage for part-time users who may need to store the wheelchair more than use it. Rigid wheelchairs, which are preferred by full-time and active users, have permanently welded joints and many fewer moving parts; this reduces the energy required to push the chair by eliminating many points where the chair would flex and absorb energy as it moves. Welded rather than folding joints reduce the overall weight of the chair. Rigid chairs feature instant-release rear wheels and backrests that fold down flat, allowing the user to dismantle the chair for storage in a car. A few wheelchairs attempt to combine the features of both designs by providing a fold-to-rigid mechanism in which the joints are mechanically locked when the wheelchair is in use. Many rigid models are now made with ultralight materials such as aircraft-grade aluminium and titanium, wheelchairs of
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, other characteristics illegal. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. In 1986, the National Council on Disability had recommended enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act and drafted the first version of the bill, introduced in the House and Senate in 1988; the final version of the bill was signed into law on July 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, it was amended in 2008 and signed by President George W. Bush with changes effective as of January 1, 2009. ADA disabilities include both physical medical conditions. A condition does not need to be permanent to be a disability.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations provide a list of conditions that should be concluded to be disabilities: deafness, blindness, an intellectual disability or missing limbs or mobility impairments requiring the use of a wheelchair, cancer, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia. Other mental or physical health conditions may be disabilities, depending on what the individual's symptoms would be in the absence of "mitigating measures", during an "active episode" of the condition. Certain specific conditions that are considered anti-social, or tend to result in illegal activity, such as kleptomania, exhibitionism, etc. are excluded under the definition of "disability" in order to prevent abuse of the statute's purpose. Additionally, other specific conditions, such as gender identity disorders, are excluded under the definition of "disability".
See US labor law and 42 U. S. C. §§ 12111–12117. The ADA states that a "covered entity" shall not discriminate against "a qualified individual with a disability"; this applies to job application procedures, hiring and discharge of employees, job training, other terms and privileges of employment. "Covered entities" include employers with 15 or more employees, as well as employment agencies, labor organizations, joint labor-management committees. There are strict limitations on when a covered entity can ask job applicants or employees disability-related questions or require them to undergo medical examination, all medical information must be kept confidential. Prohibited discrimination may include, among other things, firing or refusing to hire someone based on a real or perceived disability and harassment based on a disability. Covered entities are required to provide reasonable accommodations to job applicants and employees with disabilities. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are done that the person needs because of a disability, can include, among other things, special equipment that allows the person to perform the job, scheduling changes, changes to the way work assignments are chosen or communicated.
An employer is not required to provide an accommodation that would involve undue hardship, the individual who receives the accommodation must still perform the essential functions of the job and meet the normal performance requirements. An employee or applicant who engages in the illegal use of drugs is not considered qualified when a covered entity takes adverse action based on such use. There are many ways to discriminate against people based on disabilities, including psychological ones. Anyone known to have a history of mental disorders can be considered disabled. Employers with more than 15 employees must take care to treat all employees and with any accommodations needed; when an employee is doing a job exceptionally well, she or he is not no longer disabled. Part of Title I was found unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court as it pertains to states in the case of Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett as violating the sovereign immunity rights of the several states as specified by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Court determined. State employees can, file complaints at the Department of Justice or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who can sue on their behalf. Title II prohibits disability discrimination by all public entities at the local level, e.g. school district, city, or county, at state level. Public entities must comply with Title II regulations by the U. S. Department of Justice; these regulations cover access to all services offered by the entity. Access includes physical access described in the ADA Standards for Accessible Design and programmatic access that might be obstructed by discriminatory policies or procedures of the entity. Title II applies to public transportation provided by public entities through regulations by the U. S. Department of Transportation, it includes the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, along with all other commuter au
Baby transport
Various methods of transporting children have been used in different cultures and times. These methods include baby carriages, infant car seats, portable bassinets, slings, backpacks and bicycle carriers; the large, heavy prams, which had become popular during the Victorian era, were replaced by lighter designs during the latter half of the 1900s. Infant carrying emerged early in human evolution as the emergence of bipedalism would have necessitated some means of carrying babies who could no longer cling to their mothers and/or sit on top of their mother's back. On-the-body carriers are designed in various forms such as baby sling, backpack carriers, soft front or hip carriers, with varying materials and degrees of rigidity, decoration and confinement of the child. Slings, soft front carriers, "baby carriages" are used for infants who lack the ability to sit or to hold their head up. Frame backpack carriers, hip carriers, mei tais and a variety of other soft carriers are used for older children.
Images of children being carried in slings can be seen in Egyptian artwork dating back to the time of the Pharaohs, have been used in many indigenous cultures. One of the earliest European artworks showing baby wearing is a fresco by Giotto painted in around 1306 AD, which depicts Mary carrying Jesus in a sling. Baby wearing in a sling was well known in Europe in medieval times, but was seen as a practice of marginalised groups such as beggers and gypsies. A cradleboard is a Native American baby carrier used to keep babies secure and comfortable and at the same time allowing the mothers freedom to work and travel; the cradleboards were attached to the mother's back straps from the head. For travel, cradleboards could be hung on travois. Ethnographic tradition indicates that it was common practice to cradleboard newborn children until they were able to walk, although many mothers continued to swaddle their children well past the first birthday. Bound and wrapped on a cradleboard, a baby can feel secure.
Soft materials such as lichens and shredded bark were used for cushioning and diapers. Cradleboards were either cut from flat pieces of wood or woven from flexible twigs like willow and hazel, cushioned with soft, absorbent materials; the design of most cradleboards is a flat surface with the child wrapped to it. It is only able to move its head. On-the-body baby carrying started being known in western countries in the 1960s, with the advent of the structured soft pack in the mid-1960s. Around the same time, the frame backpack became a popular way to carry older babies and toddlers. In the early 1970s, the wrap was reintroduced in Germany; the two ringed sling was invented by Rayner and Fonda Garner in 1981 and popularized by Dr William Sears starting in around 1985. In the early 1990s, the modern pouch carrier was created in Hawaii. While the Chinese mei tai has been around in one form or another for centuries, it did not become popular in the west until it was modernized with padding and other adjustments.
It first became popular and well known in mid-2003. Portable cradles, including cradleboards and bassinets, have been used by many cultures to carry young infants. Wheeled devices are divided into prams, used for newborn babies in which the infant lies down facing the pusher, the strollers, which are used for the small child up to about three years old in a sitting position facing forward. William Kent developed an early stroller in 1733. In 1733, the Duke of Devonshire asked Kent to build a means of transport that would carry his children. Kent obliged by constructing a shell shaped basket on wheels; this was richly meant to be pulled by a goat or small pony. Benjamin Potter Crandall sold baby carriages in the US in the 1830s which have been described as the "first baby carriages manufactured in the US" However, it has been argued that F. A. Whitney Carriage Company was the first, his son, Jesse Armour Crandall was issued a number of patents for improvements and additions to the standard models.
These included adding a brake to carriages, a model which folded, designs for parasols and an umbrella hanger. By 1840, the baby carriage became popular. Queen Victoria bought three carriages from Hitchings Baby Store; the carriages of those days were built of wood or wicker and held together by expensive brass joints. These sometimes became ornamented works of art. Models were named after royalty and Duchess being popular names, as well as Balmoral and Windsor. In June 1889, William H. Richardson patented his idea of the first reversible stroller; the bassinet was designed so it could face in towards the parent. He made structural changes to the carriage; until the axis did not allow each wheel to move separately, Richardson's design allowed this, which increased maneuverability of the carriages. As the 1920s began, prams were now available to all families and were becoming safer, with larger wheels, deeper prams, lower, sturdier frames. In 1965, Owen Maclaren, an aeronautical engineer, worked on complaints his daughter made about travelling from England to America with her heavy pram.
Using his knowledge of aeroplanes, Maclaren designed a stroller with an aluminium frame and created the first true umbrella stroller. He went on to found Maclaren, which manufactured and sold his new design; the design took soon "strollers" were easier to transport and used everywhere. In the 1970s, the trend was more towards a more basic version, not sprung, with a detachable body know
Skateboard
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for the sport of skateboarding. It consists of a specially designed maplewood board combined with a polyurethane coating used for making smoother slides and stronger durability. Most skateboards are made with 7 plies of this wood. A skateboard is moved by pushing with one foot while the other remains on the board, or by pumping one's legs in structures such as a bowl or half pipe. A skateboard can be used by standing on the deck while on a downward slope and allowing gravity to propel the board and rider. If the rider's leading foot is their right foot, they are said to ride "goofy. If the rider is regular but chooses to ride goofy, they are said to be riding in "switch," and vice versa. A skater is more comfortable pushing with their back foot. Electric skateboards have appeared; these no longer require the propelling of the skateboard by means of the feet. There is no governing body that declares any regulations on what constitutes a skateboard or the parts from which it is assembled.
The skateboard has conformed both to contemporary trends and to the ever-evolving array of stunts performed by riders/users, who require a certain functionality from the board. The board shape depends upon its desired function. Longboards are a type of skateboard with larger, softer wheels; the two main types of skateboards are the shortboard. The shape of the board is important: the skateboard must be concaved to perform tricks. Longboards are faster and are used for cruising and racing, while shortboards are used for doing tricks and riding in skateparks. Main: SkateboardingSkateboarding started in California in the 1950s; the first skateboards were made from roller skates. Skateboarding gained in popularity because of surfing. Skateboards were handmade from wooden boxes and planks by individuals. Companies started manufacturing skateboards in 1959. During this time, postwar America, was carefree with children playing in the streets. Boards are continuing to evolve as companies try to make them lighter and stronger or improve their performance.
Skateboarding is a individual activity. There is no wrong way to skate. Skateboarding still hasn't stopped evolving, skaters are coming up with new tricks all the time. Skateboarding has gone through its downs over the years. However, since 2000, due to attention in the media and products like skateboarding video games, children's skateboards and commercialization, skateboarding has been pulled into the mainstream; as more interest and money has been invested into skateboarding, more skate parks, better skateboards have become available. In addition, the continuing interest has motivated skateboarding companies have to keep innovating and inventing new things. In 2020 Skateboarding will appear for the first-time in the Olympics in Japan; the following descriptions cover skateboard parts that are most prevalent in popular and modern forms of skateboarding. Many parts exist with alternative constructions. A traditional complete skateboard consists of the deck, wheels, bushings and bolts to fasten the truck and wheel assembly to the bottom of the deck.
Older decks included plastic parts such as side and nose guards. Modern decks vary in size. Wider decks can be used for greater stability. Standard skateboard decks are between 28 and 33 inches long; the underside of the deck can be printed with a design by the manufacturer, blank, or decorated by any other means. "Long" boards are over 36 inches long. Plastic "penny" boards are about 22 inches long; some larger penny boards over 27 inches long are called "nickel" boards. The longboard, a common variant of the skateboard, is used for higher speed and rough surface boarding, they are much more expensive. "Old school" boards are wider and have only one kicktail. Variants of the 1970s have little or no concavity, whereas 1980s models have deeper concavities and steeper kicktails. Grip tape is a sheet of paper or fabric with adhesive on one side and a surface similar to fine sandpaper on the other. Grip tape is applied to the top surface of a board to allow the rider's feet to grip the surface and help the skater stay on the board while doing tricks.
Grip tape is black, but is available in many different colors such as pink, yellow, checkered and clear. They have designs die-cut to show the color of the board, or to display the board's company logo. Grip tape accumulates dirt and other substances that will inhibit grip, so use of a grip eraser or rubber eraser is necessary after riding through mud or with dirty shoes. Attached to the deck are two metal trucks, which connect the wheels and bearings to the deck; the trucks are further composed of two parts. The top part of the truck is screwed to the deck and is called the baseplate, beneath it is the hanger; the axle runs through the hange
Sidewalk
A sidewalk or pavement known as a footpath or footway, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is separated from the vehicular section by a curb. There may be a median strip or road verge either between the sidewalk and the roadway or between the sidewalk and the boundary. In some places, the same term may be used for a paved path, trail or footpath, not next to a road, for example, a path through a park; the term "sidewalk" is preferred in most of North America, along with many other countries worldwide that are not members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The term "pavement" is more common in the United Kingdom, as well as parts of the Mid-Atlantic United States such as Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey. Many Commonwealth countries use the term "footpath"; the professional, civil engineering and legal term for this in North America is "sidewalk" while in the United Kingdom it is "footway". In the United States, the term sidewalk is used for the pedestrian path beside a road.
"Shared use paths" or "multi-use paths" are available for use by both bicyclists. "Walkway" is a more comprehensive term that includes stairs, ramps and related structures that facilitate the use of a path as well as the sidewalk. In the UK, the term "footpath" is used for paths that do not abut a roadway; the term "shared-use path" is used where cyclists are able to use the same section of path as pedestrians. Sidewalks have operated for at least 4000 years; the Greek city of Corinth had sidewalks by the 4th-century BCE, the Romans built sidewalks – they called them sēmitae. However, by the Middle Ages, narrow roads had reverted to being used by pedestrians and wagons without any formal separation between the two categories. Early attempts at ensuring the adequate maintenance of foot-ways or sidewalks were made, as in the 1623 Act for Colchester, although they were not effective. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, attempts were made to bring some order to the sprawling city. In 1671,'Certain Orders and Directions Touching the Paving and Cleansing The Streets and Common Passages within the City of London' were formulated, calling for all streets to be adequately paved for pedestrians with cobblestones.
Purbeck stone was used as a durable paving material. Bollards were installed to protect pedestrians from the traffic in the middle of the road; the British House of Commons passed a series of Paving Acts from the 18th century. The 1766 Paving & Lighting Act authorized the City of London Corporation to establish foot-ways throughout all the streets of London, to pave them with Purbeck stone and to raise them above the street level with curbs forming the separation; the Corporation was made responsible for the regular upkeep of the roads, including their cleaning and repair, for which they charged a tax from 1766. By the late 19th-century large and spacious sidewalks were constructed in European capitals, were associated with urban sophistication. In the United States, adjoining property owners must in most situations finance all or part of the cost of sidewalk construction. In a legal case in 1917 involving E. L. Stewart, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and a lawyer in Minden in Webster Parish, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that owners must pay whether they wish for the sidewalk to be constructed or not.
Sidewalks play an important role in transportation, as they provide a safe path for people to walk along, separated from the motorized traffic. They aid road safety by minimizing interaction between motorized traffic. Sidewalks are in pairs, one on each side of the road, with the center section of the road for motorized vehicles. In rural roads, sidewalks may not be present as the amount of traffic may not be enough to justify separating the two. In suburban and urban areas, sidewalks are more common. In town and city centers the amount of pedestrian traffic can exceed motorized traffic, in this case the sidewalks can occupy more than half of the width of the road, or the whole road can be reserved for pedestrians, see Pedestrian zone. Sidewalks may have a small effect on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. A study of sidewalk and transit investments in Seattle neighborhoods found vehicle travel reductions of 6 to 8% and CO2 emission reductions of 1.3 to 2.2% Research commissioned for the Florida Department of Transportation, published in 2005, found that, in Florida, the Crash Reduction Factor resulting from the installation of sidewalks averaged 74%.
Research at the University of North Carolina for the U. S. Department of Transportation found that the presence or absence of a sidewalk and the speed limit are significant factors in the likelihood of a vehicle/pedestrian crash. Sidewalk presence had a risk ratio of 0.118, which means that the likelihood of a crash on a road with a paved sidewalk was 88.2 percent lower than one without a sidewalk. “This should not be interpreted to mean that installing sidewalks would reduce the likelihood of pedestrian/motor vehicle crashes by 88.2 percent in all situations. However, the presence of a sidewalk has a strong beneficial effect of reducing the risk of a ‘walking along roadway’ pedestrian/motor vehicle crash.” The study does not count crashes. The speed limit risk ratio wa
