> They often don't connect up to anything in a useful way (other than nearby parks and maybe elementary schools - but only if they are very close)

What should it connect to? Thanks to zoning there is no Café you can go to or a small supermarket or anything else in the vicinity. Not even public transport which then might bring you elsewhere.

Sidewalks went out of fashion because developers thought they took away property sq footage. So a 5000sqft SFH lot became 4800 sqft. But then homeowners realized if kids don’t have sidewalks they’ll play in the streets.

If they could get away with it developers would drop sidewalks completely. It’s only because cities and towns started mandating it that they became fashionable again.

Wait, do you mean that building sidewalks is the developer's responsibility? Do you mean like greenfield development on wholly privately owned land? Around here it's the municipality's job to plan and build (with subcontractors of course) transport infrastructure in new developments, just like power/water/etc infrastructure.

In many places afaik, sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner.

In a lot of places, that means you only have to build a sidewalk when you're doing some kind of construction on the property. In some Seattle neighborhoods (mostly suburbs), you'll have neighborhoods with 20 houses in a row, and only the 5 or 6 newest houses will have a short sidewalk that is only the length of the property. So you're bouncing back and forth between sidewalks and ditches. Sidewalks just start, end and go nowhere.

That’s crazy.

The developes are planning and building roads too.

An alien concept but sort of explains some things.

>But then homeowners realized if kids don’t have sidewalks they’ll play in the streets.

Which was considered fine at the time and depending on where you live is still fine.

In most suburban streets it would still be fine. Though parents are more paranoid than in 1960. However suburbs need buys roads all over (many are stroads, but the fact of car living means you need busy roads to get around)