Editing Sidewalk (section)

===Transportation===
[[File:Old Bond Street 1a db.jpg|thumb|right|Pedestrians walking on the sidewalk, locally known as a "pavement" in [[London]]]]
[[File:Tampere - Kauppakatu.jpg|thumb|right|Sidewalk at Kauppakatu in [[Tampere]], Finland]]
Sidewalks played an important role in transportation, as they provided a path for people to walk along without stepping on horse manure. They aided road safety by minimizing interaction between pedestrians, horses, carriages, and later automobiles. Sidewalks are normally in pairs, one on each side of the road, with the center section of the road for motorized vehicles. [[Crosswalk]]s provide pedestrians a space to cross between the two sides of the street at predictable locations.

On rural roads, sidewalks may not be present as the amount of traffic (pedestrian or motorized) may not be enough to justify separating the two. In suburban and urban areas, sidewalks are more common. In town and city centers (known as [[downtown]] in the USA) the amount of pedestrian traffic can exceed motorized traffic, and in this case the sidewalks can occupy more than half of the width of the road, or the whole road can be [[Pedestrian zone|pedestrianized]].