The Mostly Delightful Yet Somewhat Harrowing Walk from Homewood to Downtown
Around 3pm on Tuesday, January 28, 2014, I sat at my downtown Birmingham Innovation Depot office and talked to several co-workers who decided to stay the night at work. It was the Snowpocalypse and this is what hundreds (thousands?) of people working downtown chose to do that night. Roads over the mountain were impassable to cars, so the best choice for everyone was to stay put.
Almost everyone that is, so long as they didn’t have twin toddlers at home. Worried the power would go out and that my wife Jennifer would be stuck in the cold with three young children, I decided to do something I had never considered doing before, and walk home.
I pulled up Google Maps, charted a 4 mile course over Vulcan to Edgewood, rifled through the office for warm clothes, thankful for a Mailchimp wool hat tucked away in a closet (seriously, you saved my ass that day Mailchimp) and started walking.
What I found was that the walk home, even in the snow, wasn’t a big deal. In fact, I would go so far as to call it delightful. What made it even better was that the roads, especially the treacherous path heading up Vulcan, were empty. The few people trying to risk driving up the hill were met with a harsh reality. Here’s some video I shot on the walk.
Ever since that walk through the snow in 2014, I’ve made it a habit to periodically walk to work. Once a month or so I’ll walk from Edgewood to Innovation Depot, and then catch a ride or Uber home at the end of the day. This blog post chronicles what it’s like to walk from central Homewood to downtown.
If you want to walk downtown, you first have to pick your path. I’m not of the opinion that pedestrians always have the right of way or that I’m entitled to the shortest possible path. It would obviously be ridiculous to walk up Red Mountain Expressway. I stick to streets with sidewalks and try and take an appropriate route. Common sense and Google Maps dictate that there is a best option from Homewood Park over the mountain, and that’s Central Avenue to 18th Street up and over Vulcan.
The only other possible option is Greensprings, which may be more viable as they continue to add sidewalks, but remains unfriendly to pedestrians. Plus, the walk down Oxmoor between the shops at Edgewood and Greensprings can be harrowing. So, Vulcan it is!
My walk gets off to a pleasant start through Homewood Park.
I then head up Central Avenue. You could maybe argue that pedestrians shouldn’t be walking up Central, but as you make the turn from Homewood Park, there are sidewalks inviting you to walk up either sides of the street, which makes it seem like the city planners consider it a viable option, plus, it’s a convenient cut-through. I choose to start up the left (West) side of the street facing traffic.
Fairly soon the sidewalk runs out at Irontribe.
Typically the decision is to continue in the gutter/grass, but once you hit Huffstutlers Hardware, you’re tempted to cross the street to the sidewalk on the other side. There’s not a crosswalk, so you pick your spot. Central traffic can be busy and crossing here isn’t ideal, but it’s nothing compared to some of the crossing decisions coming up later in the walk.
While this seems like a great idea at the time, after a few hundred feet you find out that the sidewalk ends again.
Looking ahead you see the White Flowers walk of death.
You decide to cross back over to the other side, just past Huffstutlers.
You’ve tried your best to stick to sidewalks up Central, but now you’ve had to cross heavy traffic twice and you’re back on the West side of the street. Even though there are no longer any sidewalks, at this point the walk still isn’t too bad. You have to make a few “should I walk in the gutter or hop over this small retaining wall” style choices, but nothing too dangerous.
Once you get to the Gentleman’s Quarters, Central becomes impassable to pedestrians.
No problem, just take a step back and cut through the parking lot, pass Jim & Jim’s body shop, and cross the street at Nadeau.
Now you find yourself still on the West side of the street, walking up 18th Street South, ready to take a serious run at Vulcan.
As you walk up the West side of 18th Street, the sidewalks are spotty. Depending on how cars are parked at Ed’s Pet World, you may have to step out into the gutter.
As you look up ahead and see the blind curve of cars coming down the hill from Vulcan, you intuitively think that you would be better served by walking down the well-established sidewalks on the East side of the street. You consider crossing the busy street somewhere between Hatfield Auto Parts and Chicago Mike’s Hot Dogs. Here’s where you are about to make the biggest mistake of the walk. A mistake that, quite frankly, has almost gotten me killed.
Let’s say that you are seduced by the temptation of better sidewalks and a clearer field of vision and you cross the (busy) street. All seems well as you pass DeVinci’s, Chicago Mike’s, and reach the intersection in front of the gas station.
You cross into the awkward triangle median with the stone Homewood sign and then cross Rosedale. Now your find yourself heading up the hill, traffic at your back, towards Vulcan, on a well-paved sidewalk. You pass by a newly constructed bus stop and then without warning, the sidewalk ends.
Due to the heavy traffic, you decide it’s too busy to cross, and instead start walking on the grass, coming up on a blind corner.
You make the soft right turn and suddenly the grass gives way and your only choice is to walk in the gutter. The bottleneck tightens and you find yourself in a very dangerous, life threatening, situation. Cars are coming from behind, at a rapid pace, honking, inches from where you stand. There simply isn’t anywhere to go.
Looking across the street, you see a sidewalk. You make the dangerous decision to cross a very busy street. You catch your breath, back on the West side of the street, heading North.
If you take away one thing from this blog, it’s to ignore your better instincts and stick to the West side of the street heading up the hill.
After a few hundred yards of well maintained sidewalks, you encounter the awkward Richard Arrington Jr. intersection next to the Vulcan Park entrance. The sidewalk ends, there are no crosswalks, and the poorly-planned Valley Avenue traffic offset to the left leaves you feeling uneasy about crossing the street. Cars seem to be coming from all directions, including those leaving Vulcan.
After crossing this dangerous unmarked intersection, passing the NBC13 sign, the worst part of the walk begins. It’s rough because it’s the steepest uphill portion of the journey, there is no sidewalk, and the traffic is fast & heavy. You can choose to walk on an uneven rocky surface where you could easily slip and fall into traffic, or in a slanted drainage ditch. It feels dangerous, is stressful, and quite frankly, makes you wonder if it’s worth it to try and walk over the mountain.
Once you reach the top things drastically improve. The sidewalk picks back up and you have a beautiful view of downtown Birmingham.
From here it’s mostly smooth sailing. I’ll walk down the hill, past Ocean and into Five Points.
Then I’ll weave through UAB towards 17th Street.
Dead ending into Railroad Park.
And and after a delightful stroll through Railroad Park
I’m back to work at Innovation Depot.
Walking to work takes me 53 minutes. I’ve never walked to work and regretted it. It always sets the stage for a great day. I feel refreshed, clear-headed, and often feel like I’ve mentally tackled the day’s hardest tasks before setting foot in the office.
All of that said, there are some truly treacherous obstacles on the walk, particularly at the end of Central and approaching Vulcan. There are no shortage of people that would like to walk or bike over the mountain and it seems obvious that there should be a safe path to do so. Unfortunately, the options are currently limited. I encourage our city’s leaders (both Homewood and Birmingham) to work together to provide safe passage.
