A Repost on Walking

With the way gas prices are going up, I thought this post on walking might be a bit timely.

Our town is small, but we do have a bank, post office, pharmacy, health food store, coffee shop, dentist, doctor, pizza shop, health food shop, florist, hair dresser, Laundromat and a university all within a mile of our house, which gives us a Walk Score of 55. Not bad, but not the best.

I wish we still had corner stores to walk to, communities to call our own where we didn't need to be so dependant on cars. The big super stores drove all those little business out and now we may just be wishing we had them back.

From the site....you type in your address and it comes up with a Walk Score.

What does my score mean?
Your Walk Score is a number between 0 and 100. The walkability of an address depends on how far you are comfortable walking—after all, everything is within walking distance if you have the time. Here are general guidelines for interpreting your score:
90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

repost from Monday, May 07, 2007

This morning I got an email from "French Women Don't Get Fat". It was really interesting. All about walking. Americans don't walk places. We might walk for health reasons but hardly any of us walk to the store, walk to a friends house a mile away, walk to church, walk to the museum and certainly not walk from market to market picking out our food for the days meal. I see people walking along the road, tennis shoes on, arms swinging, IPods plugged into their ears, serious and intent on burning up those calories. But honestly that's not much fun. Its work, its like going to the gym. Its sweaty in summer, cold in winter and only the very brave head out in rain. Our babies strollers are made so they collapse into small things able to be stored in the back of our vehicles since we just use them to cart the baby from the car to the mall and then back again to the car. We have forgotten the joy, the benefits of walking with pleasure to accomplish things such as marketing. Part of this comes from our rushed lives. Walking takes time. I can head off to the post office, city hall to pay the water bill, and the bank in the car and be home in 15 minutes. Walking on the other hand would take me an hour or so. I would stop to talk to people I know, I might stop to watch a crow hop across the road and I may just be inclined to stop at the local cafe and have a coffee. No drive thru there so I don't stop when in the car.My mothers generation walked more. In the Boston area I knew many of my mothers friends that never even had a drivers license. There were corner stores. Small markets, hair salons, barbers, drug stores, dry cleaners all within a short distance of just about every home. I walked to the corner store as a child often, maybe even daily. Ladies would dress their babies pretty and parade them down the road in big buggies, people would stop and talk and comment on the baby. We have lost that and we have gotten FAT. Other countries haven't taken to driving the car for every little trip. They still walk and they are thinner than we are.It said in the email this morning that the average person in Switzerland consumes 20 lbs of chocolate a year, but they are not all fat. They walk. Consider walking some place to do something. Consider saving some money at the gas station by dressing up a bit, going for a walk to the store or some other place. The benefits are profound, both physically and mentally.
Emery on the way to one of our favorite cafe's