I've recently been taking increasing notice of how few people I ever see
walking in my city, no matter how short their trip may be. I believe that the reason behind this trend is that my
suburban city, although able to boast of possessing very good roads relative to the rest of the
metropolitan area, lacks basic
pedestrian facilities in most areas, which makes it, at best, inconvenient and, at worst, extremely dangerous to
travel anywhere on foot or even on a
bicycle.
As an example of this situation, consider my
health club membership: although I live only a few minutes walk from this facility, I opt to
drive to it instead of walking because the latter
course of action would entail traveling alongside a five lane U.S.
Highway with only a narrow,
trash littered, grassy strip to walk on. After that, I'd be forced to cross all five lanes, two of which become fairly busy right-turn lanes where
traffic is never required to
stop or
yield. Upon arriving at the health club, I proceed to get on a
treadmill, as a warm-up for my
workout, when I could have used the walk from my
apartment as a much more pleasant and less
hamsterish means of warming up.
Consider also the fact that, even though
McAllister's Deli is located only a few feet away from my apartment complex, in order to reach it on foot I am forced to take a circuitous route, traversing a couple
parking lots and ascending or descending two steep and often slippery inclines which lack any type of pavement at all, let alone steps. For this reason I, like most people who live in my
neighborhood, usually opt to drive to this
dining establishment instead of walking and, in doing so, disrupt the flow of traffic on the aforementioned U.S. Highway by briefly pulling into traffic and then turning into the McAllister's
parking lot after driving only a few feet.
In a
society where an increasingly
sedentary lifestyle is putting our
population at risk for
health problems such as
heart disease,
high blood pressure,
diabetes,
obesity and even
depression, encouraging the general population to live a
healthy lifestyle, including daily
physical activity, should become a priority for our
communities and
government. Allowing residents to incorporate this
activity in their every day lives, by walking to destinations close to their homes, would be an important step in this direction and would add to the overall
livability of our cities.
Just the other day, I was driving back from work (on a narrower, less heavily traveled road) and was forced to drive in the turn lane in order to avoid hitting an
elderly woman walking along in the street with a little boy (presumably her
grandson). I could hardly be
angry at them, however, since there was no other place to walk that I could see and there are many reasons that could explain why they weren't driving.
Take a look at your neighborhood or, better yet, your whole city or metropolitan area.
What would you do if your car broke down? Would you be able to get around on your own, or would you have to mooch rides off of
friends and family?
I, personally, find this situation very
ironic since one of the main reasons why the
United States has let automobiles rule the streets at the expense of all other modes of transportation is the "
freedom" that
driving is supposed to give everyone. Now I'm forced to get into my own mobile, freedom affording, flexible
prison cell, for which I shell out a fortune every month in
fuel,
loan payments,
insurance,
repairs and
maintenance every time I want to go anywhere farther than a couple blocks from my front door -- and only south or west of it. Once I'm in my prison cell, I proceed to place a great deal more trust than I'm comfortable with in scores of
strangers to not do anything stupid enough to damage my
personal property or, possibly, splatter me all over the
pavement.