24 ms·

That's too bad. In the area around where I live I have yet to encounter a suburb that doesn't have sidewalks! I understand what you meant by "walkability". I

That's too bad. In the area around where I live I have yet to encounter a suburb that doesn't have sidewalks! I understand what you meant by "walkability". I also don't think it's fun or practical. I tend to visit a lot of different stores, not just one or two. But I only go out shopping once a week or two, not daily. That sounds exhausting. I also hate super dense living being packed in like sardines with everyone else. It's nice having a house with a decent sized yard and 10+ trees. Plenty of space and isolation, but at the same time close enough to friendly neighbors to socialize with. More Americans should give small to mid size cities a chance. They have a lot to offer. Far cheaper too, our neighborhood definitely isn't wealthy.

acdha 4y ago
> That's too bad. In the area around where I live I have yet to encounter a suburb that doesn't have sidewalks! It’s often linked to ugly history: when we were shopping around here in the DC area, there were tons of suburban houses with no sidewalks and transit-hostile road design which were built right after the major civil rights wins, when the thinking was that most black people couldn’t afford cars. > I understand what you meant by "walkability". I also don't think it's fun or practical. My thinking is that it’s less about fun than barriers to activity and car-centricity. If exercise is something which requires traveling elsewhere or you have to do on will-power an awful lot of people won’t do it very much, especially over time (maybe they walk the exercise trail when they first move in but lose interest over time because there’s only one route and that gets monotonous, etc.). Having kids is eye-opening that way when you’re seeing where they can go safely and under their own power, not to mention parents realizing how long they’ll be playing chauffeur. The car centric point I mentioned is related: cars are expensive ($11k/year on average in 2019) so when your household has purchased one per adult you typically end up treating them as your default mode of transportation, which over time degrades your body and conditions you to think of being outside of air conditioning as outliers, and cars are dangerous which further reduces your options. Kids are driven to parks 3 blocks away because their parents are worried they’ll get hit by a car; pedestrian routes are hot, noisy, and extra long; etc. Obviously they’re useful too but I don’t think it’s coincidence that obesity has been going up as an increasingly large fraction of people live in environments designed to be used while sitting sedentary in a machine. City living isn’t without its own problems but when you get 10k steps without even making an effort to exercise it helps.
tdeck 4y ago
> But I only go out shopping once a week or two, not daily. That sounds exhausting. It's not exhausting when it's just a couple of blocks away. I live about 5 a minute walk from our local grocery store, so it can be a nice break to pop over there for a couple things multiple times a week. There's no ceremony to it at all since there's no hassle of parking and it's easy to go when the store isn't crowded. An added benefit is that I can plan less and also waste less food, because I go to the store more often and get exactly what I need.
- nightski 4y ago
  Exhausting in the time sense. I don't have much free time and the little I do I value a lot. Even if it is a few blocks that's a 30 minute trip each day. Sure it can be fun occasionally, but I'd hate to do it regularly.

acdha 4y ago

> That's too bad. In the area around where I live I have yet to encounter a suburb that doesn't have sidewalks! It’s often linked to ugly history: when we were shopping around here in the DC area, there were tons of suburban houses with no sidewalks and transit-hostile road design which were built right after the major civil rights wins, when the thinking was that most black people couldn’t afford cars. > I understand what you meant by "walkability". I also don't think it's fun or practical. My thinking is that it’s less about fun than barriers to activity and car-centricity. If exercise is something which requires traveling elsewhere or you have to do on will-power an awful lot of people won’t do it very much, especially over time (maybe they walk the exercise trail when they first move in but lose interest over time because there’s only one route and that gets monotonous, etc.). Having kids is eye-opening that way when you’re seeing where they can go safely and under their own power, not to mention parents realizing how long they’ll be playing chauffeur. The car centric point I mentioned is related: cars are expensive ($11k/year on average in 2019) so when your household has purchased one per adult you typically end up treating them as your default mode of transportation, which over time degrades your body and conditions you to think of being outside of air conditioning as outliers, and cars are dangerous which further reduces your options. Kids are driven to parks 3 blocks away because their parents are worried they’ll get hit by a car; pedestrian routes are hot, noisy, and extra long; etc. Obviously they’re useful too but I don’t think it’s coincidence that obesity has been going up as an increasingly large fraction of people live in environments designed to be used while sitting sedentary in a machine. City living isn’t without its own problems but when you get 10k steps without even making an effort to exercise it helps.

tdeck 4y ago

> But I only go out shopping once a week or two, not daily. That sounds exhausting. It's not exhausting when it's just a couple of blocks away. I live about 5 a minute walk from our local grocery store, so it can be a nice break to pop over there for a couple things multiple times a week. There's no ceremony to it at all since there's no hassle of parking and it's easy to go when the store isn't crowded. An added benefit is that I can plan less and also waste less food, because I go to the store more often and get exactly what I need.

nightski 4y ago
Exhausting in the time sense. I don't have much free time and the little I do I value a lot. Even if it is a few blocks that's a 30 minute trip each day. Sure it can be fun occasionally, but I'd hate to do it regularly.