Only Road Guy Rob will bring up the "infinite switchback" problem that makes modern pedestrian walkways annoying, NJB and friends jump straight to "it makes it easier for cars to go underneath/above, ergo, BAD". (This is not an exaggeration.)
So, "we're not pro-pedestrian, we're anti-car" AKA window-dressing to limiting personal freedoms in pursuit of communism, or a side-effect of "REE global warming, I'm an atheist but I can't admit to having death anxiety" pee-pants transference?
If you've ever driven into DC from the BW Parkway, they have multiple massive ones like that not too far past the DC line. The wheelchair ramps on one side look to be 1/8 of a mile long, it's asinine.
A compromise would be that at least 1 crossing within X blocks has to be wheelchair accessible, or they could put electric lifts in a certain number of them. But doing that in every single case is just unrealistic.
The real answer is that sometimes there is no compromise. It sucks to be disabled. But there aren't fair practical solutions to everything. Whenever it's practical, having a ramp instead of stairs? sure. There are plenty of pointless 3-4 step stairs that should be avoided if possible. But ultimately when you're in a chair, it's going to be limiting.
Far better would be to take a fraction of the money saved not trying to make impossible "accessible" pedestrian infrastructure and instead subsidize some form of disabled transport, shit, just give the wheelies under a certain income threshold some gibb money for transport subsidies, idk. It might also just be a waste of money, but at least it'll be a much smaller waste of money while allowing practical infrastructure to be build.
and just a reminder, the USA and the ADA is unique in the world. For all of its proclaimed superiority, Europe just doesn't have anything at all similar, and what they do have is rickety and shitty compared to the USA.
Much of what they do have is put in privately or for tourism reasons and it's not just "oh that's the old city, the new stuff is great."
The best ADA-compliant walkways have ramps AND stairs, and nobody takes the ramps unless bored:
View attachment 6853900
(I will give the urbanistas this, that shit is ugly. But I blame it on the density being too high, not because of cars. The walkable city is low-density!)
It's amazing what you can accomplish efficiently when you're not tied down with bullshit. Because for all their whining, some of the big challenges pedestrians face aren't fucking "Stroads" and "carbrains", it's natural impediments like rivers, steep hills, and other natural impediments.
One of the most elegant and low-cost implementations I've encountered was in Bangkok, where they were able to add a pedestrian bridge shoulder to a highway over their major river.
It connected the two neighborhoods underneath the highway, you never had to cross traffic, the stairs weren't too steep which allowed for bikes to be easily dismounted and bumped up and down the stairs, it minimized the amount of time you have to walk next to the separated traffic, the bridge also carried trains in the middle, and on one side they built an outdoor gym with various recreational courts and equipment underneath the highway, leveraging it as shade from the intense heat. I was amazed by how practical it was.
But no, NJB knows it is far better to sit in your dirty diaper in hopes of cars being banned rather than implementing practical solutions to make pedestrians lives easier
AUTISM ALERT 
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