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The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

bbc.co.uk

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Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#121

Post by tluyben2 »

cableshaft wrote: post #83
tluyben2 wrote: post #13

I walk insane lengths as it clears the mind and fosters creativity. I talk into my phone during that; either to colleagues or to a recorder and then type it in at home (no, speech to text does not work; if someone wants to work with me to get that working, that would be great but for now, it does not even work a bit; only gibberish comes out; it seems to have something to do with my way of talking which I am trying t…

> I want to be able to program while walking... That's why Google glasses got me excited, as it's a step towards that direction. I don't see this being too viable until I can control the computer with my thoughts, though, so we need the microchip in the brain (or something similar) still too. But then I could work outside, walk while working, not be tethered to a desk or table all day. Can't wait for that time, hopef…

I tried a one handed chord-grabbing keyboard; with some practice it is fast enough for normal (sloppy) text; for programming I can't say I liked it much. It would be quite good to have something like for heads up displays in combi with AR.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#123

Post by alphapapa »

RobertoG wrote: post #61
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes police will stop people who look the complete opposite of suspicious just to make sure they don't need help.

Yeah... but because they are walking.. I think that say something about how the city is designed.

The only parts of cities like that that are actually "designed" are the downtown and a few special developments. The rest just grows as people move and buy land and open businesses.

Most people drive cars, and most people prefer having some room to breathe, and there's no shortage of space, so lots are made big enough to have parking and empty space, etc.

There's not some kind of anti-walking design conspiracy here.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#124

Post by davidw »

hyperpallium wrote: post #31

also, purposeless bicycling. need to be away from traffic, so you don't have to concentrate. a bike path - even better, a national/state park. but to clarify, it helps to have a destination, even though it's not the "purpose".

Yeah, easy-pace bike rides are definitely great for thinking.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#125

Post by ocschwar »

kleiba wrote: post #11

There were times in my life (thesis writing) where I'd go and sit in the library all day to work and come home in the early evening. The psychological stress on me during that time was tremendous. Every evening, after coming home, I'd have a small dinner and then go for a one-hour walk, always the same route. At that time, I lived in a small town, and my route would take me down a dead-end street, across another one,…

In parts New Mexico and Texas, if you're driving and see someone walking, it's considered proper to stop and ask if he's hydrated. Never mind whether he has a reason to be walking there.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#126

Post by alphapapa »

cableshaft wrote: post #114
Chris2048 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to be able to program while walking... Won't help the "bus factor"...

If by 'bus factor' you mean not noticing a city bus running me over, well I don't plan to do the walking on a city street, but in a park or forest preserve. There's a bunch near me. The chances of being hit by a bus would be borderline non-existent, and I'd expect the view to be fairly translucent by default anyway. If by 'bus factor' you mean the business term of concentrating too much knowledge in one person and su…

LOL! Good grief, man, it was a joke! You just deconstructed it down to its subatomic components, leaving nothing but a pile of gray goo. You're like the LHC for jokes.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#127

Post by SilasX »

mseebach wrote: post #9

> But are people losing their love of the purposeless walk? BBC Magazine strikes again. No, they're not losing it, it's not "slowly dying". Did "people" at large ever have that? Having the time and energy to go aimlessly wandering was a luxurious privilege until very recently. If anything, the existence of "[a] number of recent books [that] have lauded the connection between walking - just for its own sake - and thin…

I'm not sure it was even popular for the American well-off (upper middle-class). In Mad Men, I remember them making a point of the characters ridiculing a woman who said she liked to take walks (though she was abnormal in other ways, like being divorced).

(I know it's not top-grade historic research, but they tried to highlight what was known about the 60s, and this matches the environment that inspired Bradbury's story about it.)

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#128

Post by lgieron »

wil421 wrote: post #95
marcusgarvey wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Other areas are known drug zones and you can be arrested for going there without a clear purpose. How could this be a lawful arrest?

Let's say your a drug addict but don't happen to have anything on you, they look you up and your background has prior arrest for drugs. Maybe you look like your on drugs and have all the tell tale signs. In this case your gonna go to jail. What if you're a tourist or someone who got lost trying to go to find Ikea. They would hassle you and most likely give you a lecture then lead you out of the area. These types of a…

> Maybe you look like your on drugs and have all the tell tale signs. In this case your gonna go to jail.

Wait, the illegal possesion laws extend to the drugs being already in your blood?

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#129

Post by alphapapa »

vidarh wrote: post #43
jokoon wrote: post #19

Wasn't this already posted on hackernews? I've already read it, and I was a little curious because that's a little what I started to do last year (my apartment and school started to feel like a prison cell). I just walk in my city to explore, preferably greener, quiet areas without car traffic, but I always plan a zone I'll go to. I use offline openstreetmap (OSMAND) on my smartphone. I try to go to different places…

Once of the reasons I want massively more dense residential areas in cities is because I want city living but shorter distances to large parkland. I live in a relatively green area, but still my street alone (~660 houses)"wastes" around 40,000 m^2 of space compared to new high rises on the way near our local station. I'd love to see far more of the residential areas compressed like that, if only it meant a reasonable…

I don't understand the desire to stack people on top of each other and "compress" and optimize residential areas. Apartment living stinks. Noisy neighbors, crowded living spaces, no yard to play in or have a pet in, more risk of fire caused by neighbors and loss of life and property, noisier environment outside, the list goes on and on.

I guess if you're wealthy enough to live in a nice condo with thick concrete walls and floors and ceilings, and a condo association with lots of strict rules about what you can and can't do to annoy your neighbors, maybe it would be more pleasant--unless you want to practice a musical instrument or have a workshop or a garden or...

Human beings aren't made to be stacked on top of each other. You can do it, but it results in much more stressful living. People are happier and healthier when the population density is lower and they have room to breathe and have more space of their own.

Re: The slow death of purposeless walking (2014)

#130

Post by fuzzywalrus »

aninhumer wrote: post #52
kleiba wrote: post #11

There were times in my life (thesis writing) where I'd go and sit in the library all day to work and come home in the early evening. The psychological stress on me during that time was tremendous. Every evening, after coming home, I'd have a small dinner and then go for a one-hour walk, always the same route. At that time, I lived in a small town, and my route would take me down a dead-end street, across another one,…

If someone gets out of their car in the middle of nowhere and starts walking, it's fairly possible that they've broken down or run out of fuel, in which case the police could help them out. I don't know how the interaction in question went, but it's possible they were just interpreting an earnestly concerned police officer as suspicious because of a (justifiable) distrust of police.

Maybe this is my Northwestern showing but as a (nearly)lifer of the Pacific Northwest, I can honestly say that if I see someone walking, I assume they're out for a walk even when I lived in a town of 2500. I imagine this is the privilege of living somewhere known for natural beauty because I think "Why wouldn't you want to be outside?"

It's fascinating to read about inherent fear of being questioned. I don't think its ever crossed my mind, and its not uncommon to see cars parked along side random roads all through Oregon and Washington. I guess I'm lucky in this regard.

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