I had to run a few errands yesterday morning. Since I live on the outskirts of NYC, and most of the people here commute into Manhattan on public transportation, my neighborhood is fairly walkable, so I usually hoof it for these sorts of excursions. It’s gets me moving, saves on gas and is better for the environment.
I always considered my community “walkable,” mostly because we have sidewalks. Where I grew up, we didn’t have those newfangled contraptions. Walking the dog, going for a run, simply taking an evening stroll meant playing chicken with traffic. And 30-odd years later, the old ‘hood still doesn’t have ‘em.
But even with those sidewalks, is my current community truly walkable?
I walked up the main drag to UPS to ship a package and then, since I was half way there, I decided to walk another 5 minutes to get a cup of coffee. The way my day was shaping up, I knew I would not have time for a work out, so I figured this would be a good way to sneak in a quick mile between errands.
In that walk between UPS and the coffee shop, I had five near-misses with cars. That’s a near-miss a minute.
Cars taking a corner fast, rushing a left turn, even impatiently turning into the driveway of the coffee shop made my morning walk an exercise in frustration.
There has been a real push towards “walkable communities” in the past few years. Next Generation Consulting is one of the thought-leaders weighing in on this, and last week posted initiatives cities could take to create healthier communities on their blog:
- Create shops and restaurants within a walkable distance (check)
- Make the walking paths pretty with trees (eh alright)
- Have working streetlights (needs improvement)
Fantastic suggestions, but I would like to add one of my own. Actually police the damn traffic laws–they are there for a reason.
I am a huge supporter of the walkable communities initiative. I think a true walkable community would be a tremendous asset anywhere, especially where I live. Cutting down on traffic congestion, less pollution and the physical benefits of being more active make it such an attractive proposition. (Are what a great job-creating public works project!)
But we need cooperation from the community of drivers so that pedestrians can get into, out of and around the communities safely. If pedestrians are getting squashed, or having near misses, the walkable community could turn into a ghost town.
I know loads of car-lovers think we pesky pedestrians have a lot of gall to walk across the road (even when we have the walk sign). But I am going to be a smug asshole and say that perhaps they need to move around on their own two legs more often, while playing chicken with a road-raged driver who’s yacking on his cell phone.
