Walkable Anderson
02 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
I’ve been running for several months now and have traced a pretty good route that I like. Today was the first warm day that I didn’t have school, and so Caroline and I took to the streets in her stroller (para gratis, gracias MaryAnn!) The goal of the trek was to return some books to the library, which is a little more than 3 miles from home. We started off pretty early in the morning and after about 2 miles, stopped at The Bagel Shop for breakfast. I used to take Caroline in there last fall, but that was before she could walk. We enjoyed our veggie omlet (sp?) and bagel with cream cheese.
We took the scenic route from there, going all the way down Boulevard and cutting over. I went down some streets I’d never even been on before (well maybe when I was little, but only in the car). I was happy to find sidewalks all the way to the library, because I was nervous at first being on the street with the stroller. Caroline thoroughly enjoyed herself, pointing at cats and tweeting like the birds (“Teet teet!”) We got to the library, dropped off the books and started back home.
It was amazing to me, on the way home, how few people I saw. I mean, there were plenty of people around me, but they were all in cars. (Near the hospital, there are usually a lot of folks walking around, which was true today). But parts of the walk home seemed really desolate. I was reminded of my walks, almost daily, in Harrisonburg, where everything seemed within 2 miles of you at all times. (When I say everything, I mean, my friends, my job, the library, the bank, the post office, church and foodstuffs). Now that I think about it, all of those things are also within about 2 miles of my house here too! It only takes a mental shift, and more importantly, a commitment to not drive and take the TIME to get somewhere more slowly. I think the reason more people don’t walk to their errands is that they’ve crammed so much stuff into their schedule (myself included) that there is no time left for TRANSIT. You’d have to cancel two meetings in order to give yourself the hour or more needed to walk from point A to B to C to D to A.
I’ve also started taking the Catbus to school on Mondays, since gas has gone up recently. It is actually very cool, because I am able to read for an entire hour (30 min each way) and listen to my headphones. And it’s free! Did I mention its free? Cuz it’s free 
I suspect though that if and when gas prices go higher, or continue to stay where they are that folks will likely factor walking and other alternative forms of transportation into their lifestyles. I saw a poll on tonight’s news that 82% of people were doing something to conserve gasoline nowadays. Once again the economy has begun to create a shift en masse in our culture. The good news is, hopefully, this will also mean less pollution and CO2 going into the atmosphere.
