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I used to take lots of walks at night before I had a full time job and children. I live in Austria and it seems bizarre to me that police officers would check y

I used to take lots of walks at night before I had a full time job and children. I live in Austria and it seems bizarre to me that police officers would check you out just for walking around at night. I never had such an experience whether I was living in Vienna or my small hometown. What I did see was black men having to show their ID at subway stations, which to me was a very unsettling thing, because it was pretty obvious that they were looking for drug dealers and focusing on a specific race. I was held up in Croatia and had to show my ID twice. But I was with a group of people in a party area, so that kind of made sense. Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA?

skissane 8y ago
> Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA? I once got sent to Plano, Texas, for a week. It was a training course for work. After the course, I went for walks in the afternoon / early evening. And it surprised me at just how deserted the streets felt. There were plenty of cars around, but so very few pedestrians. I didn't really feel unsafe, just more out of place.
- michaelgrafl 8y ago
  A friend of mine who worked on a plant site in Alabama for a couple of months told me he would get weird stares from the locals when he was going for runs in the morning/evening. I never knew whether to believe him, but everything in this thread seems to underpin his story.
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    In American articles, pro environment types sometimes mock how Americans will drive to the gym, drive home to get ready for work, then drive to work creating extreme time stress. The punchline is usually to the effect of "Why not just bike to work? It would be cheaper, take less time and be better for the environment." One justification for going to the gym is the poor outdoor air quality in some places. It seems list on a lot of people that driving everywhere is a cause of poor air quality. In the years I have lived without a car, my example of walking everywhere has tended to popularize walking wherever I lived. (Yes, even when I was homeless.) After seeing an uptick in walking, you could see visible evidence of improved air quality, such as healthier plant life in the area. Crime also went down. In the apartment complex where I gave up my car, the cops stopped staking out the entrance on weekend evenings. In another city, helicopter manhunts and similar police activity trended down.
    - Slansitartop 8y ago
      > In the years I have lived without a car, my example of walking everywhere has tended to popularize walking wherever I lived. (Yes, even when I was homeless.) After seeing an uptick in walking, you could see visible evidence of improved air quality, such as healthier plant life in the area. > Crime also went down. In the apartment complex where I gave up my car, the cops stopped staking out the entrance on weekend evenings. In another city, helicopter manhunts and similar police activity trended down. This is a pretty fantastic, and frankly unbelievable claim.
      - DoreenMichele 8y ago
        Perhaps you aren't familiar with Jane Jacobs' work. Her position was that eyes on the street was the key to safety in urban areas. This is that mechanism in action.
        Slansitartop 8y ago
        > Her position was that eyes on the street was the key to safety in urban areas. I'm sure that's true. However, the unbelievable part was the influence you ascribe to yourself. I do not believe that you, personally, set in motion a chain of events "wherever [you] live" that "lowers crime" and causes "healthier plant life."
  - Symbiote 8y ago
    I read 'Notes from a Big Country' by Bill Bryson during my second visit and first road trip in America as a child. I could entirely believe what he wrote on this topic, which fortunately is extracted here [1]. We covered a huge distance, so understandably my dad didn't really want to drive any further once we had arrived at each day's motel. However, there was rarely any alternative. There were a couple of occasions where American tourists were part-impressed, part-worried to see children walking. (There's a well-known metamorphosis stage in American teenagers; at 15 they grow legs ready for learning to drive.) [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/brysons-america-why-would-you-walk-1079183.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/brysons-ame...
DoreenMichele 8y ago
Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA? In many places, yes. But part of the article takes place in New York, where it isn't. I have lived without a car for over a decade. Almost everyone immediately assumes that I am simply poor and can't afford a car. This happens to also be true, but I wanted to live without a car for a long time, I'm an environmental studies major and I have terrible eyesight problems. I always hated driving. In over ten years, only one person ever asked why I gave up my car. Everyone else just assumes they know and assumes it is poverty. In the US, almost everyone drives everywhere to the point of ridiculosity. I gave up my car while living in an apartment complex where people drove their trash to the dumpster and drove to the mailbox. I lived within a 15 minute walk of three shopping centers. Initially, no one walked. The streets were all deserted. After I gave up my car and began walking everywhere, walking caught on. But before that, people drove their kids to the pool in the apartment complex and really crazy stuff like that.
- michaelgrafl 8y ago
  I find that really interesting. People here start driving their kids to school, which would have been unthinkable when I was a teenager 20 years ago. Most of my friends who live in Vienna actually don't have a car. It's just so much more of a hassle compared to taking public transport, let alone expensive. Even if they have a car, it's probably parked in some rural area during the week and just used for the weekend when parents are visited, on outings, etc. I wish I wouldn't have to own a car. That's one of my biggest gripes with living in a suburb.

skissane 8y ago

> Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA? I once got sent to Plano, Texas, for a week. It was a training course for work. After the course, I went for walks in the afternoon / early evening. And it surprised me at just how deserted the streets felt. There were plenty of cars around, but so very few pedestrians. I didn't really feel unsafe, just more out of place.

michaelgrafl 8y ago
A friend of mine who worked on a plant site in Alabama for a couple of months told me he would get weird stares from the locals when he was going for runs in the morning/evening. I never knew whether to believe him, but everything in this thread seems to underpin his story.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  In American articles, pro environment types sometimes mock how Americans will drive to the gym, drive home to get ready for work, then drive to work creating extreme time stress. The punchline is usually to the effect of "Why not just bike to work? It would be cheaper, take less time and be better for the environment." One justification for going to the gym is the poor outdoor air quality in some places. It seems list on a lot of people that driving everywhere is a cause of poor air quality. In the years I have lived without a car, my example of walking everywhere has tended to popularize walking wherever I lived. (Yes, even when I was homeless.) After seeing an uptick in walking, you could see visible evidence of improved air quality, such as healthier plant life in the area. Crime also went down. In the apartment complex where I gave up my car, the cops stopped staking out the entrance on weekend evenings. In another city, helicopter manhunts and similar police activity trended down.
  - Slansitartop 8y ago
    > In the years I have lived without a car, my example of walking everywhere has tended to popularize walking wherever I lived. (Yes, even when I was homeless.) After seeing an uptick in walking, you could see visible evidence of improved air quality, such as healthier plant life in the area. > Crime also went down. In the apartment complex where I gave up my car, the cops stopped staking out the entrance on weekend evenings. In another city, helicopter manhunts and similar police activity trended down. This is a pretty fantastic, and frankly unbelievable claim.
    - DoreenMichele 8y ago
      Perhaps you aren't familiar with Jane Jacobs' work. Her position was that eyes on the street was the key to safety in urban areas. This is that mechanism in action.
      - Slansitartop 8y ago
        > Her position was that eyes on the street was the key to safety in urban areas. I'm sure that's true. However, the unbelievable part was the influence you ascribe to yourself. I do not believe that you, personally, set in motion a chain of events "wherever [you] live" that "lowers crime" and causes "healthier plant life."
- Symbiote 8y ago
  I read 'Notes from a Big Country' by Bill Bryson during my second visit and first road trip in America as a child. I could entirely believe what he wrote on this topic, which fortunately is extracted here [1]. We covered a huge distance, so understandably my dad didn't really want to drive any further once we had arrived at each day's motel. However, there was rarely any alternative. There were a couple of occasions where American tourists were part-impressed, part-worried to see children walking. (There's a well-known metamorphosis stage in American teenagers; at 15 they grow legs ready for learning to drive.) [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/brysons-america-why-would-you-walk-1079183.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/brysons-ame...

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA? In many places, yes. But part of the article takes place in New York, where it isn't. I have lived without a car for over a decade. Almost everyone immediately assumes that I am simply poor and can't afford a car. This happens to also be true, but I wanted to live without a car for a long time, I'm an environmental studies major and I have terrible eyesight problems. I always hated driving. In over ten years, only one person ever asked why I gave up my car. Everyone else just assumes they know and assumes it is poverty. In the US, almost everyone drives everywhere to the point of ridiculosity. I gave up my car while living in an apartment complex where people drove their trash to the dumpster and drove to the mailbox. I lived within a 15 minute walk of three shopping centers. Initially, no one walked. The streets were all deserted. After I gave up my car and began walking everywhere, walking caught on. But before that, people drove their kids to the pool in the apartment complex and really crazy stuff like that.

michaelgrafl 8y ago
I find that really interesting. People here start driving their kids to school, which would have been unthinkable when I was a teenager 20 years ago. Most of my friends who live in Vienna actually don't have a car. It's just so much more of a hassle compared to taking public transport, let alone expensive. Even if they have a car, it's probably parked in some rural area during the week and just used for the weekend when parents are visited, on outings, etc. I wish I wouldn't have to own a car. That's one of my biggest gripes with living in a suburb.