(by Rob Glover, RootsRated)

"Whether you call it urban hiking or being a tourist in your own city, Charlotte is making it easier to ditch the car and explore the Queen City by foot. New miles of greenway and urban trail are being built every year, offering increasingly more opportunities to explore neighborhoods, walk to restaurants and bars, and make work commutes a whole lot healthier.

As founder and executive director of Sustain Charlotte, a nonprofit dedicated to creating sustainable communities throughout the city, no one is more in step with the benefits of an urban hike than Shannon Binns. "Walking rather than driving improves your physical and mental health, saves you money, reduces air pollution, and allows you to connect with your community," Binns noted.

Among its many projects, Sustain Charlotte has launched #walkCLT, a program designed to encourage local neighborhood exploration on foot, and Way2Go CLT, an interactive app that "gamifies" walking and biking over automobile transit. The organization’s goal for 2017 is to reduce the number of driving miles in Charlotte by one million.

Whether you’re a first-time visitor to Charlotte or a lifelong resident, there are many ways to explore the Queen City by foot or on two wheels. To get started, Binns has provided intel on several greenways and urban trails that link some of Charlotte’s most interesting neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, and breweries."

Read more here.