I went to CA for the holidays and was utterly dismayed by how unwalkable it was. It’s honestly tragic, I really took for granted being able to walk a few blocks for groceries.
It’s awful! I was staying in a hotel one mile from my job’s main office in Silicon Valley, so I figured I’d get some exercise and walk to the hotel instead of getting an Uber. And holy crap it was almost impossible. The sidewalk kept disappearing, especially at major roads and freeways, there were no crosswalks, I had to cut through multiple parking lots. I’ve never seen a place more actively hostile to pedestrians.
I tried walking from one house to another in a Texas suburb, near Houston. Similar experience. There were NO accommodations for pedestrians at all. Long stretches had no sidewalks, no crosswalks, and drivers seem to think anyone walking would be completely insane or dispensable, and aren’t looking for them at all. Truly ridiculous. Plus of course the town was insanely spread out and something that seemed like a reasonable walk, having driven many times, was actually 9-10 miles.
I was more thinking about not having to deal with six months of snow (like we do in Utah) - being able to actually get to work or to a store without having to plow through two feet of snow. Walkable cities are great, Seattle is kind of like that - Salt Lake, not so much, it’s more of a jungle of highways and not much room for pedestrians.
Or we could start by designing walkable cities
I went to CA for the holidays and was utterly dismayed by how unwalkable it was. It’s honestly tragic, I really took for granted being able to walk a few blocks for groceries.
It’s awful! I was staying in a hotel one mile from my job’s main office in Silicon Valley, so I figured I’d get some exercise and walk to the hotel instead of getting an Uber. And holy crap it was almost impossible. The sidewalk kept disappearing, especially at major roads and freeways, there were no crosswalks, I had to cut through multiple parking lots. I’ve never seen a place more actively hostile to pedestrians.
Wait till you visit Kathmandu
I tried walking from one house to another in a Texas suburb, near Houston. Similar experience. There were NO accommodations for pedestrians at all. Long stretches had no sidewalks, no crosswalks, and drivers seem to think anyone walking would be completely insane or dispensable, and aren’t looking for them at all. Truly ridiculous. Plus of course the town was insanely spread out and something that seemed like a reasonable walk, having driven many times, was actually 9-10 miles.
If only…
Wait, those actually exist, but do get hella expensive.
I was more thinking about not having to deal with six months of snow (like we do in Utah) - being able to actually get to work or to a store without having to plow through two feet of snow. Walkable cities are great, Seattle is kind of like that - Salt Lake, not so much, it’s more of a jungle of highways and not much room for pedestrians.
I live where there is snow. Walkable cities would work.
Yeah, that’s the problem.