Does North Carolina not believe in sidewalks? (Charlotte, Raleigh: school, subdivisions)
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I'm thinking of relocating to NC and have been google-mapping the place to death. What I've discovered is that even if you live a 5 minute walk to a school or a shopping area, you will not actually be able to walk there because there are no sidewalks. This holds true in most of the areas I've looked in. What gives?
Unless you're in or near the downtowns of the major cities, NC is mostly unwalkable. Most of the growth here has come during the age of the automobile. Until recently, most people didn't really care about areas being walkable, just so long as they could drive their one person vehicles.
I can't speak on other cities but in Charlotte I've noticed a new movement to build sidewalks and bike lanes in most new developments. So things are shifting in the right direction.
Maybe you should reconsider relocating here. Between the supposed lack of sidewalks and lack of washers and dryers, it sounds like you're already dealing with a lot of disappointment.
There's definitely more of an emphasis on sidewalks now so it will get better as more cities implement a "Complete Streets" policy. NCDOT implemented this in 2009 (Complete Streets NC) - basically it says that multimodal travel (bike/pedestrian) should be considered and implemented when possible with projects.
The cities have sidewalks...the suburban and rural areas may or may not. States don't provide sidewalks so NC in general doesn't have sidewalks, but the cities generally do.
In a lot of quiet suburban subdivisions there really is no need for sidewalks. People walk in the streets and share them with cars going 25 mph. I've seen it many times and it works pretty well.
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