I was thinking about the craziness that is the 5 year Oxford Rd sidewalk fail. Raleigh Spent Five Years and Thousands of Dollars Working on a Sidewalk. Then a Few Complaints Killed It. - INDY Week
and it made me wonder. Do any parts of Downtown not have sidewalks? All of the “official” downtown seems like it does? What is the closest area to downtown that does not? Lake Wheeler is the area that most comes to mind of people living near downtown, but not having sidewalks to walk there on.
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New Bern Ave past Raleigh Blvd doesn’t have sidewalks on either side which seems unacceptable when considering that Enloe HS is located just to the North. On New Bern between Poole and Raleigh Rd. there is also no sidewalk on the South side of the road but at least there are plenty of business with paved parking lots to walk through instead 
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Plenty of the surrounding neighbors have blocks without sidewalks. There are some very narrow ones that also have none on either side. If you google map it, it should be easy to spot. I’m sure those will stay that way for awhile, and that’s probably fine, as they are very low volume streets and it’s a block away to a more “main” street.
Like we said in the Longleaf Hotel thread, the former Days Inn hasn’t had a sidewalk in front for awhile but there is this “arch” sidewalk that goes around it.
I’ve always thought formal sidewalks when crossing train tracks are needed like today. Hargett street crosses two train (three?) tracks and the sidewalk turns to gravel as you approach. Let’s get that done. Same with Cabarrus, Harrington, and West. Jones St is paved so that’s not so bad.
Commerce Place in the warehouse district is only on one side. I’d be happy with removing all that on-street parking for a through-street only and more sidewalks. 
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I live just north of that section and help is on the way! https://www.raleighnc.gov/projects/content/PWksDesignConst/Articles/NewBernAvenue.html
I recently saw someone share that Strava has a heatmap of where people excercise and I thought this was a great way to look for demand for sidewalks. Strava Global Heatmap.
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That Lake Wheeler Rd. stretch from the Farmers Market to Saunders st needs a sidewalk bad. So scary walking or riding a bike, scooter etc. There is little to no space on both sides.
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Link to the City of Raleigh sidewalk projects
https://www.raleighnc.gov/projects/content/PWksDesignConst/Articles/SidewalkProjects.html
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Great article on sidewalks in Raleigh and the process to get a new one in your neighborhood https://raleigh4all.com/walk-this-way/
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How about having sidewalks from the State Farmers market on Lake Wheeler Road to S.Saunders street towards DTR. I have walked and seen other people walk along this narrow road only to nearly get themselves killed, and that is just during the day time.
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Totally agree! They should use the Dix Park side of Lake Wheeler obviously.
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I biked it yesterday with wife and she was legit terrified.
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200% agree with you and your wife, brave of you both to ride your bikes down that nightmare of a road, the City really needs to either widen the road or add sidewalks, maybe Both.
So I own several properties in Raleigh on the same street. I requested to have sidewalks installed 2 years ago because I watched several of my tenants nearly get hit but idiots flying down the street. Finally received “approval” first of September. Was told it will now take “24-36 months” to complete the sidewalk… so effectively it will take up to 5 years to install a single sidewalk …love the efficiency!!!
Don’t even let me get started on the “process” to get approved in the first place. 
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@evan.j.bost did you and your wife bike across I-40 on Lake Wheeler? If so, what did you think of that? I ride on the sidewalk to cross over I-40 and just try to get through it as quickly as possible without thinking about falling off the one side onto I-40 or getting hit by cars on the other.
@UncleJesse I live near Carolina Pines Ave which was recently approved for street improvements that include adding sidewalks and a multi-use path. Our CAC (SW) got pretty excited about this, but then I looked at the timeline and realized that this project won’t be completed until my son graduates high school. He just started 9th grade last month.
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Not much efficiency as just a lack of funding. If there was more funding available, more projects could be completed and fewer hoops to jump thru.
I do the same, stick to the sidewalk and even bunny hop the steel plates that protrude a couple inches up from the concrete. I’ve done it probably 20-30 times and have never had a reportable issue, but it only takes one…
It would be fantastic if the Dix Park conservancy could call for a portion of the several million they just donated to the park to go toward safe non-auto park access including a Greenway along lake wheeler connecting Rocky branch to Walnut Creek Greenways
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I think that’s exactly what they’re doing. They just gave the city $7M for “Phase Now” and thought I read somewhere that’s included, but can’t find where I read it.
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There’s no lack of funding. We voted and passed a bond several years ago to tax ourselves for this explicit purpose. This is an inefficiency of our city operations period.
5 years to build a sidewalk that’s maybe 1 city block?!! Seriously?
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which road are you talking about? Some details would help haha
It could be that future funding has been identified as being available for the project but not at the current moment. It’s on the list of projects to be completed but eventually (NCDOT and other municipalities have a ranking criteria as well)
And the transportation bond was for a specific list of projects to be completed (see map: Raleigh voters overwhelmingly supporting referendum on $206M transportation bond - INDY Week), not sidewalk requests.
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There is always a lack of funding. Or in other words, there is a budget that is to be adhered to. Most cities prioritizes sidewalks and give them some sort of ranking which eventually determines when they are to be done. Also, cities will not do sidewalks unless the street is built out as wide as it is supposed to be and has curb and gutters installed. It is standard practice and I think it states that point actually on the City of Raleigh page.
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My 30 seconds of internet research turned up a post on WRAL about Dix Park and Phase Now.
Very little in the way of details. That’s WRAL for ya. Says the Dix Conservancy has offered city council $7 million to get started on “Phase Now” which will take 2 years to complete. No idea what Phase Now means or entails.
I’m keeping an eye on this space to see how effective, or not, the newly seated city council is.
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