Junior Jocelyn Chin, a member of Duke Club Running, pointed out that while she enjoys Durham’s neighborhoods and historic districts, “sometimes the sidewalks just randomly end.”Ĭhin recalled a time when members of DCR needed to cross a highway exit without a light for pedestrians, when “one just crossed, and the car just moved, and it was so close.”īut adding something as simple as a crosswalk to Swift may be complicated due to potential state ownership of Swift Avenue, according to Tim Johnson, professor of the practice of energy and the environment, at the Nicholas School of the Environment. “I feel safe walking to West Campus since it's past the and other campus buildings, so it's actually a very pleasant walk,” Lewis said. Junior Natalie Lewis echoed McCallum’s positive feelings about walking internally on Duke’s campus, noting that the inconsistency of the Swift bus pushes her to often walk to West Campus from Swift. “Honestly, if you just painted lines, just like, ‘Hey, people do cross here,’ it'd go a long way.” Junior Andrew McCallum expressed largely positive feelings towards the walkability of Durham, noting that one of the things that “sold ” on Duke was “how great the running is around here.”īut “by Swift is probably the worst place I have to run,” McCallum added. According to Wharton, the disconnect between the two parts of Durham is a result of historical segregation, with Route 147 originally placed in its current location in order to separate the Durham Black community from the white downtown. Several students expressed concern with the route from Swift Apartments to East Campus, which requires walking across the highway’s entrance and exit without a crosswalk. On Duke’s campus, some students say they aren’t concerned about walkability on the whole, but they’ve identified one pesky spot - the route between 300 Swift and East Campus. “So those communities that have suburbs that are unwalkable give the whole place an ‘average’ if you look at Durham - the urban center of Durham, that is downtown Durham - it's extraordinarily walkable,” said Wharton, who has lived in Durham for 40 years. Hamilton professor of art and art history, and a scholar of architectural history. Durham also has low bikeability and public transit scores of 38 and 28, respectively.īut these ratings can sometimes be overly-pessimistic and misleading, as they include “whole cities” and not just “urban centers,” according to Annabel Wharton, William B. Durham sits at a score of 30, while Fayetteville is ranked at 21.4.Ī pedestrian in Durham is involved in a car crash every 3 days. Scores are between zero and 100, and the national average walk score of a city is 49. Walkability ratings are determined by Walk Score, a website that looks to quantify the “walkability” of an address, by analyzing the time to walk to nearby amenities and the overall safety of these routes based on population density, block length and intersection density. Fayetteville is the second-least walkable city on the list, while Durham slots in at No.
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