At 3 p.m. today a bunch of Charlotte City Council members and assorted others (including yours truly) will possibly risk their lives by walking on one of those cruddy back-of-curb sidewalks along Woodlawn Road, where traffic whizzes by at 50 mph, inches from your body. And then we’ll be invited — try not to gasp in horror — to cross the street. Note: Woodlawn has no lights or crosswalks between Scaleybark and South Boulevard, almost a full mile. So if you need to get to the other side, you just dash.
The purpose: Show the politicians how pedestrian-UN-friendly some of today’s existing development standards are.
Let us all hope no elected officials get squashed like bugs on the street. As we have seen in recent months, filling seats of elected officials (e.g., county sheriff, school board) can be messy and ugly. We would just as soon not be put through that again this year.
Why do the sidewalks tour? CDOT is working on a Pedestrian Plan which it hopes to put to council for a vote later this year. The plan (in its current draft) would recommend studying changes to ordinances in order to require back-of-curb sidewalks be improved if there’s a substantial development on a site, and that infill/teardown development be required to install sidewalks. There’s probably going to be opposition from the developers’ lobby. This is a way to help present the other side of the issue to the council members.
Small note: Technically the sidewalks on Woodlawn are not all back-of-curb. There’s a minuscule planting strip of perhaps 12 inches weedy grass-like foliage.
I’ll be taking photos. If anyone is turned into a grease spot on the pavement, don’t say you weren’t warned.