Walking to school may seem like a thing of the past for the modern college student, but for students in the Forest Lake area, it will be a part of the future. As many campuses find ways to make campus, businesses and residential areas more accessible and convenient, Tuscaloosa has its own solution: City Walk.
The Tuscaloosa City Walk, currently under design and soon to be under construction, may someday connect students living in the neighborhood to campus. Tuscaloosa’s Recovery Operations director Robin Edgeworth said the RiverWalk-style path would provide students with a safe route to school.
“The [City Walk] is a shared use path connecting neighborhoods, local businesses, and educational institutions,” Edgeworth said. “It should provide a more connected community.”
Community plans such as City Walk not only benefit students, but also local campus community members. Leslee Griggers, who graduated from the University in the spring, will be living in Forest Lake while working in Tuscaloosa.
“[Being able to walk to campus] would be cool, especially for football games, because it’s really not that far,” she said.
Griggers said she enjoys walking because of its health benefits and already uses the RiverWalk, which makes the proposed Forest Lake version especially attractive.
“I think it would definitely improve Forest Lake because more people would want to live there because it’s accessible,” she said. “It could improve that neighborhood and give it a boost after it’s been through so much destruction. They’ve seen so much devastation, so it’s a blessing to be able to put that beautification project [there].”
In addition, Griggers said, connecting residential and business districts could be beneficial for local businesses.
“Being able to walk to shop would increase the number of people staying here and shopping,” she said.
Philip Young, a sophomore majoring in telecommunication and film, said he thought the University’s connection to the business areas on the Strip was a perk for the generally walkable campus.
“You can’t take the UA away from Tuscaloosa,” he said. “Connecting them improves the economy. It’s important to connect students to where they’re not just on campus, but to where they’re helping businesses thrive.”
Tuscaloosa is not the first begin to consider campus accessibility in community planning. Young, a native of Charlotte, N.C., said the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s campus is similar to The University of Alabama’s in walkability, but downtown Charlotte requires increased accessibility due to lower parking availability.
“Everything is generally in the same area. You can park and get to a restaurant within a mile,” he said. “You can usually get to where you want to go by walking from a parking lot or by transit.”
In environments like Tuscaloosa and Charlotte, Young said, walkability matters because traffic and timeliness can be mutually exclusive.
“It can take forever to get around the city,” he said. “If you need to get somewhere in a timely manner, driving isn’t always reliable.”
The City Walk may be the cure. Edgeworth said the walk should connect students to venues within the city. One side effect of that may be clearer roads.
“One goal is to relieve traffic congestion by allowing students, residents and visitors the ability to walk from home, work, and entertainment areas of the city,” she said.
Ultimately, though, the City Walk is more than just a way of keeping cars off the road. The path is actually part of the extensive rebuilding plan developed in the wake of the April 2011 tornadoes.
“Through the Tuscaloosa Forward Strategic Community Plan, several big ideas emerged to achieve this vision, along with a range of initiatives to translate those big ideas into specific projects, policies and partnerships to implement the plan,” Edgeworth said. “One of those big ideas was [the City Walk].”
