CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you live in Uptown, Southend, NoDa, or Plaza Midwood, it only takes a few steps to get where you need to go. However, in other parts of the city, you will see sidewalks that lead to nowhere.
"So if you're walking out here on a day like today, there's no trees, there's no crossings, and then all of a sudden, your sidewalk just ends," Eric Zaverl with Sustain Charlotte said.
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"This is not the only example of, such a situation where a sidewalk, is done incrementally when, say, a new business is built and then it and then it stops, and then you're left, to defend on your own," Zaverl said.
So how do we score compared to other cities? The city examined our walk score, which analyzes hundreds of walking routes to nearby amenities.
According to the data, Charlotte scores 26 out of 100 which means most errands require a car.
Charlotte is the lowest compared to Nashville, Austin, Denver, and Minneapolis.
"There was over $1 billion worth of sidewalks that needed to be built. So I'm sure we still have close to $1 billion worth of sidewalks that need to be built," Zaverl said.
As the city grows fast, how do we fix this?
"Funding is definitely key. Then, the other thing is the political will to actually be able to execute if we get the funding right. So, we have plans. The city has been working on plans for the last ten years. They have the policy in place. They started putting regulations in place," Zaverl said.
There are several sidewalk improvement programs happening right now throughout the city.
Zaverl said the more planning of sidewalks and public transportation the better for the community and less congestion on roadways.