5 ms·

I live close to the downtown core of my city and my daily commute is a 6 km (3.7 mile) round trip by foot. People seem to think this is exotic if not downright

I live close to the downtown core of my city and my daily commute is a 6 km (3.7 mile) round trip by foot. People seem to think this is exotic if not downright subversive, whereas they think nothing about sitting in a car for an hour a day and stopping off at the gym for a workout. Note that I'm not in particularly good shape and a walk of this magnitude is not at all difficult. I arrive at work every day refreshed, alert and in a good mood, and I arrive home after work feeling the same way. You couldn't pay me enough to take a job at which I was forced to drive, though I wouldn't mind cycling to work if the distance was too long to walk in a reasonable time.

Duff 15y ago
I started doing the same thing last year, at least when the weather is pleasant. It's an amazingly liberating experience. It makes you look forward to spring. I live in a place that typically has bad winters, so the prospect of breaking my neck on ice is not very appealing!
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  I live in southern Ontario and commute on foot year-round. There's no weather that appropriate outerwear can't handle.
  - phoobahr 15y ago
    I grew up in Alberta and fresh dry wind blown snow is hard to walk on, like dry sand. Slow going. I now live in Vancouver and despite temperature it gets damp enough that movement without sweating is well nigh impossible. Good thing I work at a pool and don't give a damn. Either way cycling is still better.
  - Duff 15y ago
    Absolutely true -- it's more of a risk mitigation thing for me. I had a ruptured disk and a spinal fusion a few years ago that went really well.... and I'm a little paranoid about keeping it that way!
    - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
      There are some pretty significant risks associated with driving as well, including both the risk of injury/death in a collision and the sheer sedentary seat time.
- bosie 15y ago
  use studded tires. mine last at least 3 seasons with daily commute. http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp since i put the studded tires on, i have not slipped once. i haven't even come close to slipping to be honest. i pretty much rie as i would on clear, dry asphalt.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
Keep in mind that the number of U.S. cities where you would want to live within a couple of miles of downtown can be counted on with 1 hand.
- jdminhbg 15y ago
  That's a value judgment that millions and millions of people apparently disagree with.
- _delirium 15y ago
  I can think of quite a few... San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Houston. Even Los Angeles and Atlanta have nice "new downtown" areas, though the traditional downtowns are sketchy (Wilshire and Midtown, respectively).
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Lots of cities have nice areas around downtown, but few have nice areas around downtown where you can do everything you need (walk to work, walk to the grocery, etc). They do exist, obviously, and some people are more tolerant about walking through a few bad blocks on the way to work than others, but it is my observation that most U.S. cities don't do a good job of making downtown a desirable place to live. Many U.S. downtowns essentially shutdown after 5pm as all of the restaurants close for the day and everyone commutes back to the 'burbs.
    - _delirium 15y ago
      That's the traditional "business district" style downtown, yeah, but afaict there's been a shift away from that in the past 15-20 years, and now many people commute to downtown in the evenings, because that's where all the restaurants/bars/clubs/theaters are. That's definitely the case in the Bay Area, where SF is much more lively after 5pm than most of the Valley is (Santa Clara is basically dead once office workers go home). Was also the case in Midtown Atlanta when I lived there a few years ago; big influx from the suburbs in the evenings, esp on weekends.
misterbwong 15y ago
While I agree that most people walking would be generally better than not, I don't quite follow your reasoning. According to this paper [1], mean comfortable walking speed for a male in his twenties is 253.3 cm/s (~5.67 mph). Assuming you are male and in your twenties, this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way, not including stopping at intersections, etc. Contrast this to ~15 mins each way in a car. This means the cost/benefit would go something like this: Walking: (+) 78 mins/day commuting + exercise (+) Mood heightened (-) Lesser exercise (walking vs 1 hr at the gym where, presumably, you'd do more than walk) Driving/Gym: (-) 90 mins/day communting + exercise (-) Mood not heightened (+) Better exercise (+) More flexibility (want to go more than a couple miles for lunch? Sorry.) My guess is that most people choose option 2 for the flexibility alone. This allows them to do their exercise when they want to. Whether or not they will is another story. [1] http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/15.full.pdf http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/15.full.pdf
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  > this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way I'm not sure about your speed calculations - average adult walking speed is generally understood to be around 5-6 km/h (3-3.75 mph). I'm a male in my late 30s and I generally walk at a relatively brisk 7-8 km/h (4.3-5 mph). As it happens, my walk home is about twice as long as my walk to work, since I pick up my son from school along the way. My walk to work takes about 20 minutes and the walk home takes around 45-50 (part of it at a child's brisk pace). > This means the cost/benefit would go something like this: You're missing some factors from your cost/benefit analysis. * Walking to work means we only need 1 family car. That saves $10,000 a year in direct ownership costs, not including paying for parking. * If I drove instead of walking, I would not use the time saved for exercise at a gym (know thyself), so I would simply miss that daily exercise. But if my commute just happens to constitute daily exercise, so be it. * There are about a dozen restaurants within a 5-10 minute walk of my office, including some of the best places in the city. (However, I'm cheap and almost always pack a lunch anyway.) * Downtown, not having a car confers more flexibility because I don't have to figure out where to park it. * If I do need more transportation flexibility on a given day, I can always take my bike to work that day.
cowpewter 15y ago
I live close (<2 miles) to work/downtown and could technically walk, except for about two blocks in the middle of the commute that I would not feel safe walking in the dark alone. (I am female, maybe a man wouldn't feel this way) Sometimes I ride my bike, which feels safer, if for no other reason than those two blocks go by awfully fast and an assailant on foot could not easily catch up to me, but biking feels like a lot more work than walking. I have to gear up, and carry my bike down the stairs from my apartment, and bike three stories up the parking garage for our office once I get there (the building manager hates bicycles, and so you cannot take them up the stairs/elevator). I also feel like one of these days I'm going to be hit and killed in that garage. I feel that way even in my car (well, at least in my car I probably wouldn't die. On my bike? Maybe). The visibility around the corners is terrible and people seem to drive through that garage like maniacs. Unfortunately, I have night owl tendencies and even if I didn't, I work for a startup and often need to work late nights, so I can't just arrange my schedule to know I can walk home before it's dark.
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  You raise a very important issue: a community is not walkable if a person walking in public doesn't feel reasonably safe doing so. I'm not specifically aware of gender-specific data related to walking (though now I'm going to see what's out there), but I've looked at the issue with respect to cycling and there's a strong correlation between the gender balance of cyclists in a city and the city's material commitment to being bikeable.
- civilian 15y ago
  That sucks :( My former office (in Pioneer Square, Seattle) has a pretty large homeless & drug-dealing population, but I rarely don't feel safe. Even when I leave work at 1am on a friday night, I just dodge a few intersections that are especially bad and I get home safe. But I'm also a guy-- I know that some of my female coworkers didn't like it, to the extent that we'd sometimes walk them to the parking garage. Have you considered getting mace?
  - cowpewter 15y ago

Duff 15y ago

I started doing the same thing last year, at least when the weather is pleasant. It's an amazingly liberating experience. It makes you look forward to spring. I live in a place that typically has bad winters, so the prospect of breaking my neck on ice is not very appealing!

RyanMcGreal 15y ago
I live in southern Ontario and commute on foot year-round. There's no weather that appropriate outerwear can't handle.
- phoobahr 15y ago
  I grew up in Alberta and fresh dry wind blown snow is hard to walk on, like dry sand. Slow going. I now live in Vancouver and despite temperature it gets damp enough that movement without sweating is well nigh impossible. Good thing I work at a pool and don't give a damn. Either way cycling is still better.
- Duff 15y ago
  Absolutely true -- it's more of a risk mitigation thing for me. I had a ruptured disk and a spinal fusion a few years ago that went really well.... and I'm a little paranoid about keeping it that way!
  - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
    There are some pretty significant risks associated with driving as well, including both the risk of injury/death in a collision and the sheer sedentary seat time.
bosie 15y ago
use studded tires. mine last at least 3 seasons with daily commute. http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp since i put the studded tires on, i have not slipped once. i haven't even come close to slipping to be honest. i pretty much rie as i would on clear, dry asphalt.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

Keep in mind that the number of U.S. cities where you would want to live within a couple of miles of downtown can be counted on with 1 hand.

jdminhbg 15y ago
That's a value judgment that millions and millions of people apparently disagree with.
_delirium 15y ago
I can think of quite a few... San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Houston. Even Los Angeles and Atlanta have nice "new downtown" areas, though the traditional downtowns are sketchy (Wilshire and Midtown, respectively).
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Lots of cities have nice areas around downtown, but few have nice areas around downtown where you can do everything you need (walk to work, walk to the grocery, etc). They do exist, obviously, and some people are more tolerant about walking through a few bad blocks on the way to work than others, but it is my observation that most U.S. cities don't do a good job of making downtown a desirable place to live. Many U.S. downtowns essentially shutdown after 5pm as all of the restaurants close for the day and everyone commutes back to the 'burbs.
  - _delirium 15y ago
    That's the traditional "business district" style downtown, yeah, but afaict there's been a shift away from that in the past 15-20 years, and now many people commute to downtown in the evenings, because that's where all the restaurants/bars/clubs/theaters are. That's definitely the case in the Bay Area, where SF is much more lively after 5pm than most of the Valley is (Santa Clara is basically dead once office workers go home). Was also the case in Midtown Atlanta when I lived there a few years ago; big influx from the suburbs in the evenings, esp on weekends.

misterbwong 15y ago

While I agree that most people walking would be generally better than not, I don't quite follow your reasoning. According to this paper [1], mean comfortable walking speed for a male in his twenties is 253.3 cm/s (~5.67 mph). Assuming you are male and in your twenties, this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way, not including stopping at intersections, etc. Contrast this to ~15 mins each way in a car. This means the cost/benefit would go something like this: Walking: (+) 78 mins/day commuting + exercise (+) Mood heightened (-) Lesser exercise (walking vs 1 hr at the gym where, presumably, you'd do more than walk) Driving/Gym: (-) 90 mins/day communting + exercise (-) Mood not heightened (+) Better exercise (+) More flexibility (want to go more than a couple miles for lunch? Sorry.) My guess is that most people choose option 2 for the flexibility alone. This allows them to do their exercise when they want to. Whether or not they will is another story. [1] http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/15.full.pdf http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/15.full.pdf

RyanMcGreal 15y ago
> this means it takes you ~39 mins to work each way I'm not sure about your speed calculations - average adult walking speed is generally understood to be around 5-6 km/h (3-3.75 mph). I'm a male in my late 30s and I generally walk at a relatively brisk 7-8 km/h (4.3-5 mph). As it happens, my walk home is about twice as long as my walk to work, since I pick up my son from school along the way. My walk to work takes about 20 minutes and the walk home takes around 45-50 (part of it at a child's brisk pace). > This means the cost/benefit would go something like this: You're missing some factors from your cost/benefit analysis. * Walking to work means we only need 1 family car. That saves $10,000 a year in direct ownership costs, not including paying for parking. * If I drove instead of walking, I would not use the time saved for exercise at a gym (know thyself), so I would simply miss that daily exercise. But if my commute just happens to constitute daily exercise, so be it. * There are about a dozen restaurants within a 5-10 minute walk of my office, including some of the best places in the city. (However, I'm cheap and almost always pack a lunch anyway.) * Downtown, not having a car confers more flexibility because I don't have to figure out where to park it. * If I do need more transportation flexibility on a given day, I can always take my bike to work that day.

cowpewter 15y ago

I live close (<2 miles) to work/downtown and could technically walk, except for about two blocks in the middle of the commute that I would not feel safe walking in the dark alone. (I am female, maybe a man wouldn't feel this way) Sometimes I ride my bike, which feels safer, if for no other reason than those two blocks go by awfully fast and an assailant on foot could not easily catch up to me, but biking feels like a lot more work than walking. I have to gear up, and carry my bike down the stairs from my apartment, and bike three stories up the parking garage for our office once I get there (the building manager hates bicycles, and so you cannot take them up the stairs/elevator). I also feel like one of these days I'm going to be hit and killed in that garage. I feel that way even in my car (well, at least in my car I probably wouldn't die. On my bike? Maybe). The visibility around the corners is terrible and people seem to drive through that garage like maniacs. Unfortunately, I have night owl tendencies and even if I didn't, I work for a startup and often need to work late nights, so I can't just arrange my schedule to know I can walk home before it's dark.

RyanMcGreal 15y ago
You raise a very important issue: a community is not walkable if a person walking in public doesn't feel reasonably safe doing so. I'm not specifically aware of gender-specific data related to walking (though now I'm going to see what's out there), but I've looked at the issue with respect to cycling and there's a strong correlation between the gender balance of cyclists in a city and the city's material commitment to being bikeable.
civilian 15y ago
That sucks :( My former office (in Pioneer Square, Seattle) has a pretty large homeless & drug-dealing population, but I rarely don't feel safe. Even when I leave work at 1am on a friday night, I just dodge a few intersections that are especially bad and I get home safe. But I'm also a guy-- I know that some of my female coworkers didn't like it, to the extent that we'd sometimes walk them to the parking garage. Have you considered getting mace?
- cowpewter 15y ago