Downtown to downtown, depending on route, it is 12-14 miles from Chapel Hill to Durham.
Our local governments are in the final stages of deciding whether to spend about two BILLION dollars building a light rail line that would connect Chapel Hill and Durham, especially UNC Hospital and Duke Hospital. But these same local governments, with massive non-assistance from the state government, have failed to succeed in building a safe way to BICYCLE from Chapel Hill to Durham. I know this because I bicycle to Durham regularly, despite its dangers.
Now I can say definitively that there is also no safe or pleasant way to WALK to Durham. I sort of knew this already. Why not spend the money to build greenway, or a bike path on some relatively direct route from Chapel Hill to Durham?
Both my regular bicycles are currently being worked on. I live on the Carrboro/Chapel Hill border. Some compulsion yesterday morning led me to walk out of my home, walk east down Franklin Street (in the direction of Durham), and just keep walking.
I walked across Franklin Street next to where the huge town-supported apartment buildings are nearing completion.
Three quarters of a mile down Franklin Street I passed McCorkle Place, where the University of North Carolina campus runs up to Franklin Street.
There is a sidewalk on both sides of Franklin Street has it winds through a leafy neighborhood before suddenly heading steeply downhill, off the “hill” Chapel Hill was originally built on.
At the bottom of the hill, after about a mile of commercial strip centers, I walked away from Franklin Street through Eastgate shopping center before crossing the highway bypass called Fordham Boulevard. It is a tricky pedestrian crosswalk.
I walked through another shopping center before heading east down Legion Road, a street that has a sidewalk only part of the way. After about a mile Legion Road dead-ends next to Old Chapel Hill Road.
I needed to walk several miles down that road to get to Durham. While some subdivision streets run into Old Chapel Hill Road, these streets are all dead-end and not interconnected. Old Chapel Hill Road does have a sidewalk on the portion of it that runs behind a series of car dealerships.
There is a nice path to walk on where Old Chapel Hill Road runs behind the reflecting modernist Blue Cross/Blue Shield building.
After the Blue Cross building the sidewalk just ends.
For the next mile or two I had to walk on the highway facing traffic, but step off into the grass whenever a car came, which was about a third of the time spent walking. Old Chapel Hill Road crosses over I-40. This was the view looking back.
Somewhere along this stretch is the border between Chapel Hill and the City of Durham. Although it did not yet feel like much of a city, at least I felt I was making progress. Near Githens Middle School the sidewalk started up again, but then the sidewalk stopped. After crossing Garrett Road, Old Chapel Hill Road turns into University Drive.
While it is an uncomfortably wide road, it least now it has a sidewalk. I had walked about two-thirds the way from downtown to downtown. With about a third of the journey still to go there would be a sidewalk most of the remaining walk.
About a mile later I cut off University Drive and walked through the huge parking of Target Superstore, so I could sit and drink a decaf latte with lots of sugar (and read The New Yorker) at the Starbucks located inside the store.
Refreshed, I walk out of Target and walked along the sidewalk of the strip mall, past Sam’s Club.
Crossing through the lot of Durham Volkswagen, I inspected lots of new model cars. I then walked facing traffic along the feeder road along 15-501. It was a more pleasant walk than it looks, in that there is almost no traffic on this road. Note the obliterated remains of a car dealership on the right of the photograph.
I made a hard left on Academy Drive that crossed the 15-501 highway, then a right on Pickett Road, then a left on Chapel Hill Road. Once on Chapel Hill Road it was a continuous sidewalk lined by pleasant 1920’s houses. The sidewalk is only on one side; I had to walk across the street to take this picture.
I took a right down Lakewood Avenue.
I was getting close. I could soon see the tall buildings of downtown off in the distance. Eventually I just walked up to downtown.
I had just passed where the Durham Bulls play.
Downtown Durham is booming. Starting about ten years ago lots of people decided they wanted to live downtown but there were very few apartments available. Apartments are now being built right and left. Downtown Durham now has five or six hotels, three of which are aggressively trying to look trendy. (Desk clerks dressed in black, modern art museum in the lobby, mid-century modern decor right out of Mad Men.)
I really like this building. It is some kind of Masonic Lodge. I hope nobody tears it down.
It was almost 3:00 PM when I finally sat down at Bull City Brew and Burger, for what else, a cheeseburger and a stout.
I took the bus back to Chapel Hill, after walking around awhile looking for the stop.
