richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) (10/24/89)
(Taken from sci.environment) In article <3575@midway.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes: > >barnes@Xylogics.COM (Jim Barnes) wrote: > >> Other more mundane arguments are things like who is responsible for >> making the sidewalks passable after a snow storm (the town [requires >> specialized sidewalk plows, more town personnel, higher taxes] or the >> property owner ["I didn't put the sidewalk there, I don't have to shovel >> it if I don't want to."]), or who is liable if someone slips and falls >> on the sidewalk (the town or the property owner). > >This was one thing that surprised me about Pittsburgh (which does have >sidewalks). People were very willing to shovel them clear, and would often >do their neighbours' bit as well if the neighbour hadn't got round to it. >One kind of instinctive socialism that is entirely lacking here (though the >fact that Pittsburgh is FAR colder and snowier than Scotland probably has >something to do with it - nobody quite expects snow to happen). > >The Edinburgh by-laws probably get it as wrong as possible - you aren't >liable if someone slips on an uncleared pavement (what we have instead of >sidewalks :-) in front of your house, but if you've started clearing it >and it's iced up afterwards, you may be. This is what the law says; I >don't know of anyone actually being sued. > >I once got stopped by the police in Western Pennsylvania after walking into >a drive-in food place one afternoon (suspicious behaviour, that). I guess >I'd have been shot on sight if I'd done it barefoot, as I sometimes go here >in the summer. It's catching, though; I got stopped walking late at night >in Drymen (a posh commuter village north of Glasgow) a couple of years ago. I for one am proud to be on a net where serious scientific discussion of sidewalks is encouraged, ans applaud the thinkers of our age that put this group in sci, and not rec or talk. -- Surgical tools for mutant women richard@gryphon.COM decwrl!gryphon!richard gryphon!richard@elroy.jpl.NASA.GOV