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The Crisis in American Walking

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Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#61

Post by simmons »

bartonfink wrote: post #52
simmons wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second that -- I loved living in Downtown Denver, and still visit as much as I can. Funny, when I was reading about the seven-minute commute in Nashua, I thought "that sounds like the commute I had in Downtown Denver," then saw your comment. I'm now living 6 miles out in Olde Town Arvada. It's actually a neat walkable area with coffee shops, brewpubs, etc., although there are no major tech employers within walki…

Somewhat different note, any interest in a Denver HN meetup sometime? I knew I couldn't be the only one but I'd like to meet more if anyone's interested.

Yes, sign me up! :)

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#62

Post by SandersAK »

danso wrote: post #10

In NYC, I think nothing of a 30min to 1-hour walk to get to dinner. In my hometown, where there are sidewalks connecting my house to the "downtown", I can barely walk 3 blocks without feeling weird. It's not just the practical distance, or how "safe" it is to conduct the walk... it's the strangeness of walking through something not as dense as NYC. I've done far less formal exercise these days than I ever have at any…

I pretty much walk or bike everywhere in Brooklyn.

When I go home to Oregon, we're constantly in the car. "Getting a coffee" consists of getting in a car, driving for 5 minutes, grabbing a to-go cup at Starbucks and driving back home... I can't really do it anymore.

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#63

Post by bunderbunder »

kia wrote: post #54

In US (not counting downtowns of large Cities like NY or SF) it is much harder to enjoy walking compared to most other places in the world. First you just look weird here when you walk somewhere and you are the only person walking in the street. Drivers usually look at you like you are crazy (especially if you walk in the evening when it's getting dark). The second and most annoying thing is that sidewalks here can e…

I used to live in a neighborhood without sidewalks. People would often stop their cars to ask me if I was OK and if I needed a ride somewhere when I was walking to the local convenience store. It was less than a mile away.

One of the many reasons why I will probably not be moving back to the suburbs if I can possibly avoid it. Most the others seem to center on walking, too: Not being able to walk to the grocery store; not being stuck in a situation where going out to the bar would be synonymous with drinking and driving, not spending my after-dinner strolls in a ditch. . .

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#64

Post by noonespecial »

tallyho wrote: post #56
noonespecial wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to take a walk in the suburban neighborhood where my parents live and was brought home in a police car . The neighbors called the police and reported someone suspicious walking through the neighborhood. Apparently, its just not done. I didn't have any ID on me so I was brought home in the cruiser so I could present my "papers" to the officer. Its a terrible thing to think but I distinctly remember being grate…

Nowhere in this country is a citizen required to carry or produce ID in public. Furthermore, officers need reasonable suspicion that you have committed, or are about to commit, a crime before you are required to identify yourself. You are never required to explain your actions.

I'm sure if I'd simply explained that to him, everything would have worked out fine for me, yes?

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#65

Post by greedo »

As a kid (10-13) I was fascinated by birdwatching, and often got up early to go down to the estuaries near my house. I'd pack a lunch, my binoculars, and field guide. It was about a 4 mile walk, but to a kid, that's nothing.

One morning, a sheriff's deputy and his partner pulled up, told me to stop, and started asking me wth I was doing at 5am. They were amazed that I would get up that early to watch birds...

Nowadays my hometown is a lot more "trendy" and the estuary is surrounded by multi-million dollar homes. And I wouldn't expect that an unaccompanied minor would be greatly appreciated by the LE community, nor would a kid that age be as safe as I was.

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#66

Post by backprojection »

"Carlin Robinson, 12, walks from her grandmother's car to the school bus in Manchester, Ky. Her house can be seen in the background. A study published in 2010, investigating high obesity rates in the town found that residents used cars to minimize walking distance, to the detriment of their health."

Association != causation. While the picture this caption is from is indeed ridiculous (grandmother driving her daughter essentially to the end of her driveway for the school bus), the implication seems to be that Americans walking less somehow has a causative effect in skyrocketing obesity rates. This seems entirely wimpy and facile.

Here's an alternative: there exists an underlying metabolic disorder that develops in a large proportion of the population, in response to something new in our environment ( new compared to pre 1950's ). A major effect that this disorder has is to partition a large part of our calorie intake towards fat storage. Now we have less energy available for expenditure, and as a consequence we either eat more or behave more sedentarily. Sedentary behavior will be a compensatory effect, that will indeed associate with obesity ( as measured by observational studies, like the one mentioned).

A good candidate for such malady would be insulin resistance [1] (and more generally, metabolic syndrome); Gary Taubes makes a very compelling case [2] that this is indeed the case, and that the primary change(s) in our environment to cause these problems is our marked increase in sugar and refined carbohydrate consumption [3][4]. The same hypotheses also seem a good explanation for rising type II diabetes rates.

Now this is still a controversial topic [5], but my point this kind of explanation seems much stronger and more on-the-mark, than such flaccid ideas like 'americans are getting fat because they don't walk to school anymore'.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_resistance [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Calories,_Bad_Calories [3] http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/Cleave/cleave_ch2.h... [4] http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2012/02/by-2606-us-die... [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_resistance#Causes

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#67

Post by _delirium »

excuse-me wrote: post #37
_delirium wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can think of quite a few... San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Houston. Even Los Angeles and Atlanta have nice "new downtown" areas, though the traditional downtowns are sketchy (Wilshire and Midtown, respectively).

I got pulled over by the police for walking in Houston Running alongside the freeway is an access road where all the on-off ramps feed. It has a wide sidewalk along the side and it was only a couple of junctions between the hotel and the site I was visiting so I walked. A police car immediately pulled up to ask where I was going and why? Fortunately the English accent convinced them I was obviously merely some pinko-…

I could see that in the suburbs, but people commonly walk downtown, in the museum district, and the Rice area. Lots of new condo towers going up in the past few years, and the light rail connects those areas.

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#68

Post by MSexton »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #35
misterbwong wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that most people walking would be generally better than not, I don't quite follow your reasoning. According to this paper [1], mean comfortable walking speed for a male in his twenties is 253.3 cm/s (~5.67 mph). Assuming you are male and in your twenties, this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way, not including stopping at intersections, etc. Contrast this to ~15 mins each way in a car. This mea…

> this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way I'm not sure about your speed calculations - average adult walking speed is generally understood to be around 5-6 km/h (3-3.75 mph). I'm a male in my late 30s and I generally walk at a relatively brisk 7-8 km/h (4.3-5 mph). As it happens, my walk home is about twice as long as my walk to work, since I pick up my son from school along the way. My walk to work takes a…

> According to this paper [1], mean comfortable walking speed for a male in his twenties is 253.3 cm/s (~5.67 mph).

It's been my experience that 3 mph (the speed I tend to default to) is considered fast by most of my peers. I'm in my twenties.

That paper is from 1997. I suspect a lot has changed.

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#69

Post by dasil003 »

eugenejen wrote: post #5

wow. I have been walking since my childhood living in two different cities (Taipei and NYC). I really enjoy walking hours just to look at streets and scenes in different hours of days. I feel that I can perceive the environment while walking in much higher resolutions and bandwidth of information flowing into my brain than driving. I was interviewed once in Mountain View in 2006 and I remembered walking on El Camino…

Yeah El Camino sucks (and 100F to boot, that is probably less than once a year occurrence), but it's quite nice to walk through the neighborhoods. I used to commute 10 miles from Sunnyvale to downtown PA by bike (or maybe Caltrain if the weather was bad). The first time I rode all the way on El Camino, but within a few weeks I had pieced together a route that completely avoided El Camino. I felt pretty proud of myself when I figured out all the pieces through trial and error. A few months later Google Maps added bicycle directions and nailed my route almost perfectly.

Re: The Crisis in American Walking

#70

Post by juiceandjuice »

_delirium wrote: post #15
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that the number of U.S. cities where you would want to live within a couple of miles of downtown can be counted on with 1 hand.

I can think of quite a few... San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Houston. Even Los Angeles and Atlanta have nice "new downtown" areas, though the traditional downtowns are sketchy (Wilshire and Midtown, respectively).

Salt Lake City's downtown and everything north, east, and south isn't sketchy at all. If you start going west, it's a little different story but compared to most anywhere in SF it's super tame.
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