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There's also seems to be a cultural stigma against walking, although I don't know how widespread it is. When I lived in California, people would actually laugh

There's also seems to be a cultural stigma against walking, although I don't know how widespread it is. When I lived in California, people would actually laugh at me for walking places. "Only homeless people walk", I was told.

izzydata 4y ago
Is it even possible to walk places in California? It seems like everything would take hours to get to or would take hiking over hills and highways.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > Is it even possible to walk places in California? California is vast, so there are many areas that are almost comically walk-proof, but there are also cities with a high average "walk score". https://www.walkscore.com/CA/ https://www.walkscore.com/CA/ I live in a SoCal coastal city of 60K which has a fairly low "walk score" of 43. The services I'd need on a regular basis are in the neighborhood of a 20-45m walk (one way).
- SllX 4y ago
  Easily within most of San Francisco. It boils down to the neighborhood you live in, but a bus or streetcar can augment the trip. The downside of doing it that way is that then you also have to endure MUNI and depending on the time of the day it can feel taxing, so it’s better if you live in one of the neighborhoods that already has a good market street (e.g. Clement & Geary in the Inner Richmond).
- thatfrenchguy 4y ago
  San Francisco beats a lot of European cities as far as walking is concerned, it’s so nice to walk around!
musha68k 4y ago
There also is the the mental trap of what I call "car think" which happens to me whenever I have a car readily available. Distances that were no problem walking creepingly become unimaginable as the (contestable) comfort of a readily available car gets normalized. I can only imagine that this effect gets worse when it's your own car with "sunk cost" as part of the equation. I'm always happy when I get back to "city normal". Walking is awesome.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  The good thing about cities is they make parking so freaking annoying, expensive, hazardous (small parking spaces) and time consuming that walking becomes much more tolerable. Downside to walking is a weekly family shop isn't easy to carry around.
  - wbl 4y ago
    The benefit of nearby stores is you shop more often.
    - nradov 4y ago
      That's not a benefit, it's a huge hassle for anyone with a family and a busy schedule.
      - princeb 4y ago
        it's the other way around for me. out in the suburbs a grocery run was around an hour, driving to the mall, navigating the ridiculously large hypermarket, packing the boot, driving back. right now i live a block down from a grocery store and a grocery run is 15 minutes tops. because grocery shopping was such a hassle in the suburbs we did it once a week and tried to buy as much as possible to avoid going back. in the city i just grab whatever is on my list walking home from the train station.
        nradov 4y ago
        Right now I live a block down from a grocery store. It's sure a lot easier to load up everything I need once a week.
      - backpackviolet 4y ago
        Nah, it’s a benefit. You need to store less, less goes to waste because it’s easier to see everything. You can buy fresher things that spoil quickly because you’re going to eat them right away. The trick is that you pick stuff up “on your way home”, you aren’t making extra dedicated trips. Not hard to supplement with grocery deliveries these days either. When I think back to the weekly grocery shopping I did with my parents as a kid? Those huge carts full of food, having to cover the entire store, then hauling it amd packing it in the car, then all the unpacking and organizing sorting and storing some of it in the main fridge and some in the backup fridge some in the pantry … to me that seems like way more hassle than speading the work out. I have kids, tried different systems, more and smaller trips works for us. Probably it’s one of those things that everyone works out differently
quickthrower2 4y ago
Sounds like veiled classism rather than anti-walking. They would probably be against living in a RV and travelling the US.
nradov 4y ago
My next-door neighbor here in California seemed kind of shocked when I told her I walked to the movie theater. It's 2 miles away, with a safe sidewalk.
ampham 4y ago
When I lived in a more car-centric city in the US, I used to get honked at while walking. It was a thing in this city to honk and/or yell at pedestrians. I’m not sure what the thinking behind that sort of behavior is.
- mym1990 4y ago
  Not sure there is any actual thinking going on there, sounds like pure stupidity to me.
windex 4y ago
Ive had people throw cans and shout at me while walking. Never understood why. Your comment brings it together for me after so many years. I wasn't homeless, just didn't have a car at the time and was used to walking long distances where I came from.

izzydata 4y ago

Is it even possible to walk places in California? It seems like everything would take hours to get to or would take hiking over hills and highways.

CharlesW 4y ago
> Is it even possible to walk places in California? California is vast, so there are many areas that are almost comically walk-proof, but there are also cities with a high average "walk score". https://www.walkscore.com/CA/ https://www.walkscore.com/CA/ I live in a SoCal coastal city of 60K which has a fairly low "walk score" of 43. The services I'd need on a regular basis are in the neighborhood of a 20-45m walk (one way).
SllX 4y ago
Easily within most of San Francisco. It boils down to the neighborhood you live in, but a bus or streetcar can augment the trip. The downside of doing it that way is that then you also have to endure MUNI and depending on the time of the day it can feel taxing, so it’s better if you live in one of the neighborhoods that already has a good market street (e.g. Clement & Geary in the Inner Richmond).
thatfrenchguy 4y ago
San Francisco beats a lot of European cities as far as walking is concerned, it’s so nice to walk around!

musha68k 4y ago

There also is the the mental trap of what I call "car think" which happens to me whenever I have a car readily available. Distances that were no problem walking creepingly become unimaginable as the (contestable) comfort of a readily available car gets normalized. I can only imagine that this effect gets worse when it's your own car with "sunk cost" as part of the equation. I'm always happy when I get back to "city normal". Walking is awesome.

quickthrower2 4y ago
The good thing about cities is they make parking so freaking annoying, expensive, hazardous (small parking spaces) and time consuming that walking becomes much more tolerable. Downside to walking is a weekly family shop isn't easy to carry around.
- wbl 4y ago
  The benefit of nearby stores is you shop more often.
  - nradov 4y ago
    That's not a benefit, it's a huge hassle for anyone with a family and a busy schedule.
    - princeb 4y ago
      it's the other way around for me. out in the suburbs a grocery run was around an hour, driving to the mall, navigating the ridiculously large hypermarket, packing the boot, driving back. right now i live a block down from a grocery store and a grocery run is 15 minutes tops. because grocery shopping was such a hassle in the suburbs we did it once a week and tried to buy as much as possible to avoid going back. in the city i just grab whatever is on my list walking home from the train station.
      - nradov 4y ago
        Right now I live a block down from a grocery store. It's sure a lot easier to load up everything I need once a week.
    - backpackviolet 4y ago
      Nah, it’s a benefit. You need to store less, less goes to waste because it’s easier to see everything. You can buy fresher things that spoil quickly because you’re going to eat them right away. The trick is that you pick stuff up “on your way home”, you aren’t making extra dedicated trips. Not hard to supplement with grocery deliveries these days either. When I think back to the weekly grocery shopping I did with my parents as a kid? Those huge carts full of food, having to cover the entire store, then hauling it amd packing it in the car, then all the unpacking and organizing sorting and storing some of it in the main fridge and some in the backup fridge some in the pantry … to me that seems like way more hassle than speading the work out. I have kids, tried different systems, more and smaller trips works for us. Probably it’s one of those things that everyone works out differently

quickthrower2 4y ago

Sounds like veiled classism rather than anti-walking. They would probably be against living in a RV and travelling the US.

nradov 4y ago

My next-door neighbor here in California seemed kind of shocked when I told her I walked to the movie theater. It's 2 miles away, with a safe sidewalk.

ampham 4y ago

When I lived in a more car-centric city in the US, I used to get honked at while walking. It was a thing in this city to honk and/or yell at pedestrians. I’m not sure what the thinking behind that sort of behavior is.

mym1990 4y ago
Not sure there is any actual thinking going on there, sounds like pure stupidity to me.

windex 4y ago

Ive had people throw cans and shout at me while walking. Never understood why. Your comment brings it together for me after so many years. I wasn't homeless, just didn't have a car at the time and was used to walking long distances where I came from.