Man stops in Durham during walk across country to raise awareness for walkable cities

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A man walking across America to raise awareness about walkable communities spent a week crossing through North Carolina.

Holden Minor Ringer started his journey on March 8, 2023, in Washington state and will end it in Washington D.C. this May.

Ringer said there is no short answer as to why he decided to make a cross-country walk but a big motivation is to raise money for a nonprofit.

"A huge part of it is raising money for American Walk," Ringer said.

"Which is a national pedestrian advocacy organization. America is not a walkable country. And, I mean, part of that is geography, but so much of this is policy of making it a place that's just built around the car and not around the people. When I got into Durham trying to get over Hillsboro Road, US 70 on West Main Street, there were no crossings. And, that's just a very common, typical thing that happens in America," Ringer said.

Ringer hopes to raise awareness toward walkability and alternate sustainable transportation for communities.

"Oftentimes, it ends in serious injuries and deaths," Ringer said. "Actually, right here, somebody had died pretty recently. I think about 44,000 people die in car crashes every single year. The places where most people are dying or getting injured are generally in some of the poorer parts of our cities, especially along arterial highways and where people have no other mode of transportation to get around. So, they're either taking transit, they're biking or they're walking. And I think it's really important to bring attention to those issues," Ringer added.

Ringer said his walk across America has been an incredible experience.