How adventurous are you with walking in your town (vs. driving)?

[melissel]

I want to use my van less, and if all things go as planned in the next few months, I'll soon be forced to drive less, but unfortunately, we live in the 'burbs, where everything is nice and spread out. There are sidewalks in the neighborhoods, but if I try to get anywhere outside our immediate residential development, I'd be walking along the grassy sides of fairly busy roads with two young kids.

 

The library is much too far to walk to. The only food store within reasonably safe walking distance is a Wawa. There are a few ethnic groceries within walking distance, and that would be very useful, except that getting there involves those busy roads again. And the most upsetting part is that we live 5 minutes away from a terrific little park that was a big part of the reason we bought this house. Unfortunately, after the township spent $3.4 million to repave the parking lots and completely redo the football field (not touching the old jungle gym equipment, of course), they had inspectors in for licensing purposes, and the inspectors found high levels of arsenic around all the jungle gym/climbing/swing equipment, so now it's all closed off for "we really have no idea" how long :cursing: So now our only park within walking distance is useless to us too.

 

For those of you in one-car families or those who just drive less, what do you do to get around? Do you just stay home until you absolutely MUST go somewhere? Would you be comfortable walking on the sides of fairly busy roads with a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old? I really would love for us to walk to more of our everyday destinations, but it just doesn't seem doable. Am I being too nervous about the roads, do you think?

 

TIA!

[Spy Car]

"Missing Persons" said it best when it comes to my hometown:

 

Look ahead as we pass, try and focus on it

I won't be fooled by a cheap cinematic trick

It must have been just a cardboard cut out of a man

Top-forty cast off from a record stand

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

I don't know could've been a lame jogger maybe

Or someone just about to do the freeway strangler baby

Shopping cart pusher or maybe someone groovie

One thing's for sure, he isn't starring in the movies.

'Cause he's walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., only a nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

You won't see a cop walkin' on the beat

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

You only see 'em drivin' cars out on the street

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

You won't see a kid walkin' home from school

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Their mothers pick 'em up in a car pool

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Could it be that the smog's playing tricks on my eyes

or is it a rollerskater in some kind of headphone disguise

Maybe somebody who just ran out of gas,

Making his way back to the pumps the best way he can.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A.

Walkin' in L.A., only a nobody walks in L.A.

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody's walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin' walkin'

Nobody walks in L.A

[melissel]

"Missing Persons" said it best when it comes to my hometown:

 

Oh NOOOOO! Now I'm going to have that song in my head for days, aaaargh!!! :lol:

[Spy Car]

Oh NOOOOO! Now I'm going to have that song in my head for days, aaaargh!!! :lol:

 

Mission accomplished :D

[Desert Rat]

We don't walk here in Vegas because it's dangerous to walk on busy streets, there's nowhere within walking distance now that the grocery store nearest us folded and half of the year it's just too bloody hot. I would prefer walking or bikes but it's just not practical where we live.

How about public transit in your area?

[DawnM]

We did walk some in L.A., but there were sidewalks! We walked to Raulphs on occasion and to Altadena dairy for milk. Other than that we didn't walk in LA! :D I also was working then so we had to drive a lot.

 

We now live in an area that seems way too rural for me. It is 3 miles to the closest grocery store and NO sidewalks! Library is 7 miles away, nearest place to eat is 3 miles away.

 

So, we don't walk much at all.

 

Dawn

[AngelaNYC]

We do lots of walking in Queens. Everything you can imagine is 5 to 20 minutes walking distance. I still tend to drive more than I probably should, though. My mom lives in Long Island in an area that sounds like your town. I am not comfortable with no sidewalks and having to walk more than 20 minutes anywhere. I don't think you're being too nervous about the roads - cars swerve onto the "shoulder" all the time.

[MamaT]

I would not walk along busy highways with small children. We live out in a rural area, so walking anywhere is out of the question for us.

 

Someone mentioned public transit. I would look into that if its available where you live. IMO walking along the highway with children is just too dangerous.

[Daisy]

We live in a city of 350,000 (800,000 in the surrounding area) but it is all farms turned city so much of it is very spread out. There are people who simply could not walk and get anywhere in their residential area. That said, we live in a neighborhood that was built in the 60's so we have more diversity. Within 1.5 miles we have our local library, locally owned grocery store, country store post office, bank, and Starbucks. The local park is less than a mile away. We frequently walk to these places.

 

We also live within .5 miles of the local community college which has major bus routes to all over the city. So we also enjoy taking the bus. My kids think a bus ride is a field trip. We'll take the bus to the big downtown library, the bookstore, Target, Walmart. I have friends who are terrified of the bus, but I got really used to riding them when I lived in Seattle so I'm not intimidated by them.

 

The only thing I have to really drive to get to is our church and doctor appointments. The newer stores like Kohls, Super Target, stuff like that is all across town.

 

We have one car (which stays with me) and my husband drives his scooter 3 miles to work everyday. Most days the car never moves out of the drive way. LOL. We spend about $100 a month on gas at $3 a gallon.

 

Oh, and I should add that we only walk like that in the WINTER months. In the summer time, it's 110 degrees so I want my a/c.

Edited November 8, 2009 by Daisy

[akmommy]

When we lived in town the kids and I used to walk to the store and other places all the time during the summer. When we lived on the other side, outside of town, we had a nice paved bike/walking path the whole way and we used to ride our bikes. Where we are at now it's a good 3-4 miles to anything in town with no bike path and I don't want to try to ride with the kids on the side of the highway. It's one of the few things I miss about living in town.

[Pretty in Pink]

Our neighborhood is sprawling and we do a lot of walking here. We have a little park with dog runs and a nature trail that is 0.9 miles away, Dunkin' Donuts is 0.75 miles away, and we have a 3 mile loop around the center of the golf course that is perfect for walking and biking.

 

As far as running errands, it isn't feasible for us at this time. We would have to walk along the side of the highway to get anywhere, and we are a few miles outside of town.

 

When I lived on a smallish military base I walked everywhere, including the Commissary, bank, parks...everywhere. It was a pretty small base though.

[elegantlion]

We are in the suburbs and not close enough to walk anywhere. There are no sidewalks on the busy street near our house. It has a decent shoulder so technically you COULD walk but it's at least two miles to anything worth walking to and that's the grocery.

 

We had one car for almost two years and I felt trapped in suburbia. When I'm closer in town I always see people walking or riding their bikes, but not for us.

 

I do wish we lived where we could walk to a park or a coffee shop or a bookstore.

[Rosie_0801]

We live on the edge of the commercial area of our town, and I walk everywhere. That includes down and across the highway. At the moment I have a pram, so if I really need both hands, I can toss the toddler in with the baby. I stash my shopping under the pram, of course, but when we're no longer using it, I'll take a back pack to pack shopping/library books into, and have both hands for holding children.

 

Rosie

[Pretty in Pink]

When we go downtown for something (think historic district) I do park and we walk and walk and walk. We usually spend an afternoon hitting up the library, park, window shopping, and grabbing a sweet tea before we head home.

[Sputterduck]

We do not walk anywhere. There aren't sidewalks and this isn't a great neighborhood. Before we lived here, we lived in the mountains and we couldn't walk there either. There was nothing close enough.

[TravelingChris]

There are only a few things within walking distance to my house and I don't walk to them. There is a 7-11 with unsavory characters, a giant hospital and a community college. I do go walking in my neighborhood to the school at times for a community meeting or the garden club. I also walk my dog. But everything else is too far away unless I wanted to walk to Exxon Mobil headquarters:001_smile:. I tend not to walk that far anyway since I have arthritis in my feet and my knees and usually limit myself to one ot one and half mile roundtrips which precludes any of the above except the school and the dog walking.

[Mabelen]

I have done plenty of walking everywhere when I was growing up in Spain and when I lived in England.

 

When we moved to the US that stopped. I just don't think it is safe in most places here for the reasons you state, lack of sidewalks, no dedicated pedestrian traffic lights, and not enough of them, lack of other pedestrians, etc.

 

We were a one car household for maybe a year. I would just drop my dh off at work and pick him up when he couldn't get a ride with a friend and workmate who lived in our court. Of course, there were weeks when my dh was out of town on a business trip so I had the car to myself. If my dh's friend was out of town on a business trip then I would plan to stay at home at least a couple of days so I didn't have to drive back and forth, but we at least had a couple of playgrounds and our community pool within easy walking distance! How far is your dh's place of work? My dh's commute was only about 20 minutes each way, so it was doable. I don't know what we would have done if it had been longer, but I think we would have bought a second car much sooner.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We do a fair amount of walking, despite living in the suburbs. We live about 6 blocks from church so we walk whenever the weather is fairly decent (and we're not late.) We have a shopping center within walking distance that has most of what we need:

a grocery store with a full-service meat counter,

a Trader Joe's,

wine/bear shop,

pharmacy,

2 restaurants,

a bakery,

a car-service place,

2 hair salons,

and several other shops.

 

We live within biking distance of our downtown and library. Unfortunately, not everything is walkable, bikable due to safety issues. We have a very busy road several blocks to the south of us that we do not cross unless we are in the car. They are in the process of building an underpass for the bike/path, but that won't be done for a couple more years. I wish I took better advantage of all this, but I am not always organized to plan the half-hour extra for getting to and from these places. The other thing that forces us into the car is that none of my kids' friends are close by, either.

[melissel]

Well, thanks everyone. I always feel like I'm the only one not walking more places, but it just really isn't practical around here, which stinks :( It's good to know that at least I'm not alone!

 

The good news is that I will still have my car (which is a good thing because DH does work 40 minutes away, Mabelen). I'm just thinking about driving as little as possible because it's a guzzler, and gas is so expensive, and we're going to have to be pinching pennies soon. I hate driving to places that I feel like we should be able to walk to, like the park :glare: But what can I do, I guess?

 

Thanks for insight, all. I appreciate it!

[Rosie_0801]

When you guys say there is no sidewalk, what do you mean? No strip of concrete, or no nature strip?

 

Rosie

[Nicole M]

When you guys say there is no sidewalk, what do you mean? No strip of concrete, or no nature strip?

 

Rosie

 

Neither. I assume when you say nature strip, you mean the vegetation between the road and the concrete strip, correct? Often here we have roads built that have just gravel or grass at the edge of the road.

 

I am passionate about alternative transportation, and this vexes me no end, that in the US our towns and cities are so walker / bicycler unfriendly. My dad lives in Vancouver, BC, a city, for crying out loud, and it's very, very walkable. Even tho he lives on a very busy throughway, I never feel vulnerable walking, because there is a wide area with vegetation between the road and the pedestrian area. Even here where we do have sidewalks, sometimes there is only a foot or so of space between the traffic and the concrete. Sometimes the sidewalk abuts the road. Maddening.

 

That said, I walk and bike everywhere. When my children were littler, I would put one on a tandem attachment to my bike, and one in a trailer behind that. I feel that (within reason, and without putting myself or my children at risk) it's important for people to claim space that we've devoted to cars. So I walk in pretty unfriendly areas. (This is the area of my life where I venture into nutjob territory. Hope you won't kick me off the board! :D)

 

ETA: Rosie, if you scroll down on this website, you'll see several pictures of typical roads in the US:

 

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_rural/fhwasa07018/

Edited November 9, 2009 by Nicole M

[Ottakee]

We don't walk or bike to anything. We are out in the country. Church is only 2 1/2 miles away but on a busy road with no sidewalks. Grocery store is 12 miles away as is the library, pharmacy, etc.

 

I LOVE living in the country but I wish they had a bike path along a few of the major roads in our township. We then could bike/walk to a lot of places.

[Cinder]

When you guys say there is no sidewalk, what do you mean? No strip of concrete, or no nature strip?

 

Rosie

 

We also have neither. There is just no way to safely walk anywhere around here. Where we live there are no sidewalks even in the neighborhood. No sidewalks on the roads out of the neigbohoods and the roads don't have shoulders; some grassy areas but only if those property owners don't have bushes there. Then you get to the highway. Last year dh took his car to be repaired and thought he'd walk back home--it's just 2 miles. After he got back he said, "NEVER AGAIN!" The grassy parts on the side of the road are sloped, so not easy to walk. And he forgot that he'd have to cross the creek which meant walking on the bridge, which is barely wide enough for the 2 car lanes on it. So he had to wait until traffic was clear then sprint across the bridge.

 

I grew up in the city and walked or took the bus to get anywhere. And I hate driving. But dh grew up on the outskirts of town and loves his space. So here we are.

 

 

Cinder

[akmommy]

When you guys say there is no sidewalk, what do you mean? No strip of concrete, or no nature strip?

 

Ours is a smallish town (one highway down the middle with side streets) and in the town itself almost all the streets and the highway have sidewalks. The few neighborhoods that don't are residential and it would be safe enough to ride or walk at the edge of the road, but once you reach the edge of town that stops. As they replace sections of the highway they are including bike paths, but our current end of things hasn't been done yet.

 

As far as safety from potential crime our town is still wonderfully boring and I wouldn't think twice about walking through town even late at night.

[TammyinTN]

Here in Europe you can walk or bike just about everywhere. It's wonderful. They have walking and biking paths all over the place and we use them a great deal when the weather is nice.

[Rosie_0801]

Neither. I assume when you say nature strip, you mean the vegetation between the road and the concrete strip, correct?

 

The nature strip (in our lingo ;) ) is the bit of land between the road and people's front fences.

 

ETA: Rosie, if you scroll down on this website, you'll see several pictures of typical roads in the US:

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/local_rural/fhwasa07018/

 

Fancy that, other than the trees and rego plates, they look like our roads! :lol: The lack of footpath, (oops, Aussie lingo again!) I mean sidewalk, doesn't usually stop me walking anywhere. If I had more children than hands, it might though.

 

Rosie

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I want to use my van less, and if all things go as planned in the next few months, I'll soon be forced to drive less, but unfortunately, we live in the 'burbs, where everything is nice and spread out.

 

Is public transportation an option? We too live in the suburbs, but I can drive 1 1/2 miles to KMart and catch the bus there. I can't walk to the bus stop because the last mile is a large five lane road with no sidewalks or crosswalks.

[Renee in NC]

Is public transportation an option? We too live in the suburbs, but I can drive 1 1/2 miles to KMart and catch the bus there. I can't walk to the bus stop because the last mile is a large five lane road with no sidewalks or crosswalks.

 

Do you find that it saves you money? We have public transport here, but the one way fare is $4.05 for the 6dc and myself, so $8.10 for the roundtrip. I can walk to the bus stop (a little more than a mile.) That is a lot unless you are going pretty far.

 

Most of the places we go are only 4-6 miles away.

[Renee in NC]

We live on the edge of the commercial area of our town, and I walk everywhere. That includes down and across the highway. At the moment I have a pram, so if I really need both hands, I can toss the toddler in with the baby. I stash my shopping under the pram, of course, but when we're no longer using it, I'll take a back pack to pack shopping/library books into, and have both hands for holding children.

 

Rosie

 

How far do you typically walk, Rosie? I have a cousin in NZ who walks just about everywhere (up to several or more miles at a time.) I would like to get us walking more places, but I don't know what a reasonable distance goal is. We are about 2 miles from the grocery, 3 miles to WalMart & Walgreens, and 4 miles to church and the library. There are sidewalks everywhere and crosswalks at major intersections.

[Rosie_0801]

How far do you typically walk, Rosie?

 

Argh. I don't measure in miles! I'm a metric girl!!

Uh, it's probably a mile each way to the chiropractor and my two year old can walk that easily, assuming she's in a cheerful enough frame of mind. Mind you, I can always toss her into the pram with the baby if she's tired, or the weather is unfriendly. Even when she was a baby, she'd stand up in the pram, sort of "pram surfing" and stay on her feet all the way there and back. She was about 18 months old when she joined us on a hike at my aunt's place over rough terrain and that would have been nearly two miles. When I say rough terrain, I mean rocks, up a hill and through scrub. Maybe my kid is just adventurous?

 

Rosie

[Amira]

I walk everywhere too, and have done so in several cities. I've found that a 3-mile roundtrip is about as much as a four-year-old wants to do (or a ten-year-old, although they'll do more). I'll happily do anything that's not longer than 5 miles there and back. I'd rather bike if it's longer than 5 miles.

 

There are two things to keep in mind when you walk a lot besides distance- how much stuff you have to haul around, and the amount of time it takes. A grocery store that's two miles away is completely walkable, but it might be a hassle to get a week's worth of groceries home, and it might take too much time to walk those four miles two or three times a week. Biking might be better, because you can bring home lots of stuff in a bike trailer and you can go more often because it's a lot faster. But if I can possibly walk, I prefer walking to biking.

 

If you're going to start walking a lot, I think it's worth building up to longer distances. Start with walking to something a mile away, then work up to longer trips.