Pedestrian Traffic

[sassenach]

Just a poll I've been thinking about as I drive around our neighborhood.  I don't think I've ever lived in a place that had more adults out jogging, biking, strolling, skating, or otherwise recreating as much as this one.

 

Recognizing that time of day/year can make a difference, I'll leave it to you all to come up with the best sample size for your neighborhood.  

[Melissa in Australia]

I voted country 6-15. But my idea of country is probably different to yours. I live remote country. Total population of small village near me is around 200.  Of that 200 at least half would go for a walk/bike ride nearly every day. The other half would be elderly and not as mobile.

[Dory]

We are a ways out of town, but I voted for our summer activity. In the winter, everyone is either on a skidoo or cross country skis or sometimes horse. In the summer there is a lot more walkers and bikers (and horse people still).

[Luckymama]

In one 15 minute period I can drive across town which is actually driving through a major research university. If I have poor timing I have to sit at a pedestrian crossing and wait for a hundred kids and faculty to cross the street :lol:

 

Any direction I travel, at pretty much any hour, I will see dozens of people biking and walking for exercise and as transportation. A large number of faculty and staff live in my neighborhood and walk, bike, or scooter to campus.

[nmoira]

City. Much of the day I could walk for 10 minutes and see more than 25 people.

[JenneinCA]

City here. We can see tons of people here. I could see 25 people from my front window in 15 minutes. It doesn't hurt that I can also see a major bike/pedestrian trail that many many people walk their dogs on and across the street behind our house is a grocery store and bus stop. Tons and tons of people... Strangely we had very few trick or treaters.

[Joshin]

Small city (pop. 200,000). We live in the city but in the residential, single-family home section of the city (so not a downtown area). Just sitting on my front porch for 15 minutes I'd probably see at least 10 people out summer, five or six in winter. In a 15 minute drive I'd see dozens of people out. Some for recreation, but most running errands or travelling from point A to point B. A lot of people walk or ride bikes to work around here, as well. About half the people I know use a bike as their primary means of transportation. It's the environmental AND financially savvy thing to do :)

[City Mouse]

My town is small enough that it only takes a minute or two to drive the entire length of town, but in the summer time it is not unusual to see 20-30 tourists walking around town and a bunch of local kids in the park for lunch.

 

This time of year not many people are out.

[AmandaVT]

I voted city and 25+, but "city" is a generous assessment. I live on a small dead end road so I counted the downtown area. I live just outside of smallest state capital in the US (quick geography quiz anyone?) it has about 7,500 people and I'm pretty sure at any given time about 1/2 of them are crossing the street without looking, biking 2 or 3 across in the middle of the road or jumping out from behind a truck to cross the street causing me to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting them. 

[Farrar]

City.  And we're in the center too, near lots of retail and walking distance from the Metro.  In a 15 min. drive, I'm sure I'd see hundreds of people at almost any time of day.

[Mrs Mungo]

I easily see over 100 people on my morning walk/run. I am in a suburb of a large city in a very nice climate with lots of sidewalks and bike lanes.

[Ewe Mama]

I voted suburb more than 25, even though we are actually rural. Two miles down the road is a popular college town where being green is very important. On a drive from here to town we would easily see 50-75 people on foot or bicycles, depending upon the time of day and time of year.

[Jackie]

I voted 25+. I live in a college town. To get to the grocery store or Target, I have to drive through part of campus, which always has a ton of people on foot.

[Farrar]

city 16 - 25 (maybe more) 

 

It's not really that people are out for recreational purposes.  For example, you won't see many joggers or those biking for exercise.  It's mostly because there are a lot of low income people who use public transportation or have to walk/bike to get around.  Plus the city is very densely populated.  We also have a CC, a private college, and 2 technical colleges.   

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.  I said I'd see hundreds of people...  but only a few of them would be engaged in recreation.  Most of them are walking to work or school to grocery shopping or something.  Or are the sort of people who just hang out outside...  because my neighborhood has a lot of people who live on the margins.

[Jen in PA]

Country, but not a ton of people walk around here, mostly just kids going to each other's houses. I can see the post office from my house, and our next-door neighbors actually drive to it to get their mail (no home delivery here) rather than walk. On the other hand, in 15 minutes I could walk through the entire village and take time to visit the sheep, too. :D

[TechWife]

Suburb - I voted 16-25, that's a low estimate. We have an amazingly active neighborhood - walkers, runners, bikers, etc.. We have about 950 homes, soon to add about 100 more through some townhouses that are going up. 

 

 

[redsquirrel]

I live in a small city with two colleges. In the middle of the night you could drive from one end of the city (about 10 square miles) in a few mins. But during the day there is a lot of walking and driving and biking and jogging. I live in the working class part of town, so lots of folks here don't have cars. So I have foot traffic in my immediate neighborhood all the time. We have a city bus system so people can get around. DH takes the bus to work and that means we only need to have one car. It saves us a lot of money!

 

But, due to the two universities this is a very 'young' city so lots and lots of joggers and bikers, plus we are surrounded by some spectacular geography so lots of hikers and rock climbers.

[beaners]

Recreational exercise isn't a "thing" here. Actually, kind of the opposite.  I've been asked if I've lost my dog or something when I've been walking or jogging on the road by my house. Concerned old ladies have pulled over to say, "You okay there honey? You need a ride home?"

 

 

[Julie Smith]

I can easily see 25+ people on foot in I just sit on my front lawn.

 

We live in a university town.

 

My dh has a computer white collar job, but bikes to work as do lots of other people. I would say about 1 in 4 people don't drive to work.

[Caitilin]

None of the options describes where we live: rural, in town, population 3K. In the summer, easily 16-25; in winter? Maybe 3. ;)

[Shamzanne]

I could see way more than 25 just looking out my window for a few minutes. I live downtown in Track Town, USA so there are joggers everywhere. Also lots of bikers and folks out walking. I love having an active neighborhood.

[Laura Corin]

I live in a village of 100 houses.  On a weekday, I would expect to meet about five people as I walk the dog around the village.

 

On the other hand, I live fifteen minutes from a university town - the university buildings are intermingled with the town buildings, so students continually try to throw themselves under my wheels.

 

L

[LaxMom]

We're in town, but in a rural area. There are maybe 2500 people in town.

 

In a drive to grab something at the grocery store, I can easily pass more than a dozen adults out walking or biking errands. Depending on the time of day, during the week there are always office people out in our 3-block downtown area, walking to the bank, post office, courthouse, etc. Morning, evening, and weekends we have the fitness runner/biker/walkers out.

 

Ironically, this is not a very health-conscious area. A lot of people just don't drive. (Or, in the case of office workers, driving errands would actually make the walk further.)

[ThisIsTheDay]

I live off of a two lane country road. While there are many side streets that branch off of the road, they are isolated from each other.  There are no sidewalks.  It is not conducive to walking or biking, downright dangerous.

[JFSinIL]

I live in a a smallish city (over 100,000) but we are so close to Chicago I count us as a suburb ;-)  and voted 16 - 25.

 

Now, where I grew up in Orange County there might be 0  folks out. Everyone drove.  No one was out walking, etc. unless (gasp) their car broke down.

[extendedforecast]

We have jogging trails in our suburban neighborhood, and it is not uncommon to see a minimum of 5-10 people walking/running/biking. On weekends, there are easily 15-20+. I chose 6-15. This is for the section of the subdivision I live in. Should I have included my general area, like a 1-2 mile radius?

[Cinder]

0-5, suburb. This area used to be country but as the big city grew this outlying area developed into suburban sprawl. There are no sidewalks and the only way to get anywhere is on the county highway which is narrow and where everyone drives well over the speed limit of 45. Dh tried walking home 2 miles from the auto mechanic once. Never again, he said; it was too dangerous. The highway has no shoulder and he had to cross a bridge with no pedestrian crossing. There is just no place to walk around here.

 

As to recreation, maybe a handful of people walk/jog but hardly anyone goes outside around here.

[Ottakee]

I voted country and 0-5 but it really depends. If I drive around in our area for 15 minutes that is likely what I would see but in 15 minutes I can get to a small university area with tons more people walking or towards a tourist town with a boardwalk with hundreds of people walking it at a time.

 

We are on a main road in the township so walking/biking along it can be quite dangerous. During the day a friend and I will walk another paved road or stick to the dirt roads.

 

Some people walk for recreation/exercise but few walk to "get" anywhere as the nearest anything is 2 1/2 miles away and that is a gas station/mini mart. Beyond that the next closest anything is another gas station/minimart another 4-5 miles down the road. Really to walk to anything--store, post office, library, etc. it is a 10+ mile trip in any direction.

 

We do have a township park across the road so we see walker in there occ but mostly it is used for kids soccer and football games, picnics, etc.

[gingersmom]

I live in a very quiet suburban neighborhood. 

 

In the summer the neighborhood is full of kids on bikes, walking dogs, walking to/from the pool. 

 

On the weekends there will be people walking dogs, bike riding. 

 

On the whole though, it is very very quiet. Unless you live in the neighborhood you would not be driving through so not even a lot of car traffic.

 

Someone just came to visit and commented on how very quiet my neighborhood is. 

[Wheres Toto]

Depends on the day of the week but on weekends, the street right outside my neighborhood (very small neighborhood of 3 streets) will have a ton of bikers on it.  We evidently have a few bike racing clubs in the immediate area.  It's not uncommon to get caught behind a pack of 5 to 10 bikers riding together, especially in the spring/summer.

 

We have a lot of dog walkers in our neighborhood so you can see quite a few people out walking at certain times of day.  Probably under 10 though.

[Momling]

There are tons of people out in our town (neither a suburb nor a city). But I did notice last year when visiting Orlando, almost nobody outside. It was weird!

The weather was good and there were surely gobs of tourists... But I think the city was never designed to be walked in. There weren't even sidewalks many places! I figured it was either regional or maybe dependent on whether a town was built before or after cars became common.

[bluemongoose]

I voted 0-5 country, but that is only true right now. In the spring/summer we get biking packs from the city.

[Greta Lea]

I voted 25>

 

 

I live in a suburb of Indianapolis. We have great trails and good side walks. Folks here are very interested in health and exercise. We've been here 1 year and love this aspect of this particular 'burb.

[Luanne]

We live in a mobile home park in the country and you might see a few children outside if the weather is nice.  You also might see two or three adults walking, but that is about it. 

[KungFuPanda]

I'm in the suburbs and any of the numbers could be correct depending upon time of day and weather. My neighborhood has great sidewalks, bike lanes on the roads, and awesome paved bike/walking paths through the woods. It's definitely walkable here. During Snowmageddon

My county got more snow than any other in the country. People still managed to hike in and open the local Food Lion and we hiked in and shopped there. The cars couldn't get through yet, but the people could :-)

[Tap]

That is very hard in our neighborhood.  We have only about 100 houses and a bunch of kids.

 

I would say on average during 9-5pm on a dry day you would easily and consistanly find over 6 people (esp kids).  It would't be uncommon to find 20 people out and about.  Even at midnight, if I went outside, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find one of my neighbors out doing something.

[Renee in NC]

I live in the country - very rural.  The road we live on is very sparsely populated, and a popular cut through to get to a town about 12 miles away.  There is little shoulder.  I walk/run it regularly, and I might see 1-2 others when I do.  These are people out exercising - there is nowhere to walk/bike to!

 

 

[Renee in NC]

Recreational exercise isn't a "thing" here. Actually, kind of the opposite.  I've been asked if I've lost my dog or something when I've been walking or jogging on the road by my house. Concerned old ladies have pulled over to say, "You okay there honey? You need a ride home?"

 

Same here, particularly if I am walking at dusk/dark.  I think it's more common for me than others because I often carry an Army Ruck suck (with weights) that makes me look homeless.  :lol:

[houseofkids&pets]

I voted for suburb, 0-5. We live on a small cul-de-sac with only 17 houses. It is quiet and does not have any through traffic, which is nice when my dc are out on bikes or scooters. However, we are minutes away from a large mall, the public school, town park, etc.

[elegantlion]

I'm in a country town of about 10k. I voted 16-25, but 15 minutes would cover most of the town, crisscrossing through the streets too. In warmer weather I'd see more people than 25 I'm sure. We have a very active walking community. Some walk due to health, walking dogs, or some it's economic. In the summer people ride their lawnmowers to the gas station on the corner, that was new to me. We're close enough kids can walk to the school, mostly high schoolers walk home. 

 

I was very surprised how many people walk around here.