eli5 why are manhole covers in the middle of the road and not on the sidewalk?

Question

eli5 why are manhole covers in the middle of the road and not on the sidewalk?

In: 622

Answer 1

All the other reasons and also this. Sidewalks are still a part of the transportation infrastructure and manholes do less harm in the road than the sidewalk. If you’re working on a manhole you’d have to block the whole sidewalk, whereas the road is wide enough a car can go around it. A car can easily roll over a manhole, but could a manual wheelchair? What about someone using a walker? Even someone just with something else on their mind could easily trip on one, whereas it’s doing almost no harm in the road.