'Footbridges': pedestrian infrastructure or urban barrier?

In recent decades, many transportation authorities have been responding to traffic-flow concerns through the construction of 'footbridges' on both major roadways and lower-velocity streets. Notwithstanding some exceptions, much of this (infra) structure poses major safety and accessibility challenges for active commuters. Building on calls for socially just approaches to sustainable transitions, this paper advocates for greater critical analysis of urban 'footbridges' that privilege pervasive and uninterrupted motor-vehicle traffic. Latin American examples illustrate the role of 'pedestrian bridges' in reinforcing mobility injustices, and the role of civil society in mobilizing counter discourses to unsustainable transportation development. This paper argues for increased attention to pedestrian-rights activism in infrastructure studies, offering insightful traffic-calming proposals and sustainable-transportation alternatives.