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Last week, I found myself needing some things from the store. No big deal - or so I thought. Walking to a grocery store is pretty much out of the question. The closest Publix is a 40 minute walk (each way) along an extremely busy highway. I have a bike, but that seemed equally dangerous, if not more so given the lack of sidewalks. Despite being a major road in a highly populated part of the region, there is NO BUS that runs along this critical arterial.
With supermarkets out of the question, I turned to smaller markets. I settled on a Kangaroo Express a quick ten minute walk from my home. Not exactly a health food mecca, but it would work in a pinch.
Preparing to cross 5 lanes of traffic on my way home
Despite being a short walk, it still exposed plenty of problems with our pedestrian infrastructure. There was no sidewalk to get me out of my complex, and no crosswalks to get me onto the other side of my side street to head in the right direction on the main highway (even at the intersection of the two streets). I was relieved to see the highway had a sidewalk and that it was far removed from the traffic. Unfortunately, it came to a random dead-end.
The crosswalk to nowhere
I was almost to the store but needed to cross one final major intersection. Ironically, here was a crosswalk… that connected to nothing.
Overall, I was pretty shocked by the un-walkability. What about the people who have to walk every day? No wonder pedestrian fatalities here are the highest in the nation! While there were times I felt safely separated from traffic, there was more then one moment when I held my breath and said a little prayer… for myself and all the other would-be walkers.
-Carly