The old crossing kept open can preserve a part of daily life a new road overlooks.

New routes are designed for the journeys planners can measure. The old crossing carries the ones they did not think to count: the child walking to a grandparent, the short cut to the allotment, the two neighbours who only ever meet on it. Closing it looks efficient because nothing on the traffic count is lost. What disappears was never on the count in the first place.

When something old is being replaced near you, ask who currently uses it and for what. Keeping the old thing open alongside the new one is often cheap, and it protects a layer of life nobody had recorded.