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Charlotte ranked 4th best walking city of 2007


swampfox43

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Prevention Magazine has rated Charlotte, NC the 4th best walking city in America according to this article. Their list of criteria include:

- % of pop that walks for exercise

- Use of mass transit

- Parks per square mile

- Points of interest per square mile

- Avg winter/summer temperatures

- % of athletic shoe buyers

Only Madison, WI; Austin, TX; and San Francisco ranked higher than Charlotte.

I am somewhat perplexed at this ranking, especially when considering parks per square mile, and points of interest per square mile. I consider that rather low compared to many other cities I have visited.

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:huh: ok then. If they base it on uptown during lunchhour, then I can see that. yesterday I saw someone walking down Providence Road in the GRASS (near Providence Country Club) since there is no sidewalk there!

If "best city to walk in" based on that criteria (temperatures, shoe buyers, etc), I can see that.

%of pop=percentage of population.

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I have to argue that one. I haven't had a car since I started college ('02, just showed my age :whistling: ) and I have gotten around pretty well. I am familiar with the roads. I will agree the transit system would be difficult for an out-of-towner to go anywhere away from a main road. A lot of neighborhoods are growing closer and more dense these days. I really don't mind the buses, plus with a transfer ticket, it only takes $1.20 to get clear across town sometimes. The main annoyance is missing a bus and waiting for another connection to match your trip. I really hope all the hype around the LRT plays out. I will benefit nicely as I live uptown and work down South Blvd. I also like the steps Charlotte is taking to be more "Pedestrian Friendly" but I also hope for improvements as the city develops.

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We generally don't put much stock in lists like this from these rags, as I suspect the number of people buying athletic shoes are doing it for show and not activity.

However, CLT has made some good efforts over the years to make it easier for people who like to walk. When I moved here in the 70s there was really not many places to safely walk because there were almost no sidewalks anywhere. That has changed a lot since then because the city started requiring sidewalks some time ago with new development, they instituted a program to install sidewalks in neighborhoods that don't have them, and the county started building the greenway system. In 1983, the city re-built Tryon street to make it easier for pedestrians as well.

The recent changes to East Blvd near Freedom Park are a good example of how to make a neighborhood more walkable as that was basically a pre-sidewalk neighborhood. They did a very good job there. There needs to be more work done on getting developers, especially national developers, to do more on the lines of following the "intent" of the laws that require sidewalks now and not just the letter of the law to minimize costs.

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I have to argue that one. I haven't had a car since I started college ('02, just showed my age :whistling: ) and I have gotten around pretty well. I am familiar with the roads. I will agree the transit system would be difficult for an out-of-towner to go anywhere away from a main road. A lot of neighborhoods are growing closer and more dense these days. I really don't mind the buses, plus with a transfer ticket, it only takes $1.20 to get clear across town sometimes. The main annoyance is missing a bus and waiting for another connection to match your trip. I really hope all the hype around the LRT plays out. I will benefit nicely as I live uptown and work down South Blvd. I also like the steps Charlotte is taking to be more "Pedestrian Friendly" but I also hope for improvements as the city develops.
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While I don't think we'll ever be 4th on reality for something such as walkability I do think we have a fighting chance at gaining some on other cities if we really can build out our greenway system. It is a wonderful network that has so much potential if done right. My biggest gripe is that lanes aren't put on the greenway system to allow for bike traffic to be separated from pedestrian traffic.

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I do have to give props for the Sugar Creek greenway. They've done a heck of a job with that so far.

Our utter lack of including pedestrians in most developments (try walking around South Park, or the office developments in Ballentyne) is pretty depressing. I ate lunch in Arsley today, and trying to walk from where I parked the car, to my first restaurant choice, and then to my second choice once we found out Wild Wing's was full, was an exercise in patience and courage.

...and this from a "new urbanist" development!

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Here's my favorite stat about Charlotte's walkability:

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, only 1.57 percent of Charlotte residents walk to work, ranking our fair city 64th among the 67 U.S. cities with populations above 250,000.

Who did we manage to beat? San Jose, Wichita, and Aurora, Colorado.

(And by the way, the share of pedestrian commuters in Charlotte actually declined sharply from 2.21 percent in the 1990 Census, so things are not improving.)

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