
The End of Walking - omnibrain
http://aeon.co/magazine/society/step-by-step-americans-are-sacrificing-the-right-to-walk/
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peterwwillis
_" One neighbourhood in suburban Chicago fought sidewalks so bitterly that it
ended up with a walkway stopping pointlessly halfway down a block."_

Actually, i've seen that in lots of places. What the hell?

Near my work, for many years, there's been a large complex of buildings for
tech workers. A block away across a busy two-lane intersection is a strip mall
full of restaurants, mechanics, cleaners, etc. There was no sidewalk of any
kind and certainly no pedestrian crossing lights. This year, construction
finally started on pedestrian crossing. But i've made the mad dash across four
two-lane sections of grass and curbs several times. I still don't get what the
hell the city planners were thinking.

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MarkSweep
Los Altos in the bay area is like that. The stated reason is to "preserve the
rural feel of the city" [1], but it's just a suburb. As a kid walking to
school and even now walking to the sleepy downtown always feels somewhat
fraught with peril. It's very unwelcoming. Compare that to Mountain View which
neighbors it, it's always a pleasure to walk with friends to the vibrant
downtown.

[1]: [http://patch.com/california/losaltos/bp--los-altos-needs-
a-p...](http://patch.com/california/losaltos/bp--los-altos-needs-a-pedestrian-
master-plan)

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niklasni1
I've got half an hour's walk to work every morning. It's a great way to start
the day, especially because the route is through a couple of parks. It clears
the mind and wakes me up. I really can't imagine living in a place where that
wasn't possible.

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aaron695
I don't really get the broken brain meme that cars have some conspiracy over
pedestrians thing.

In any commercial setting you don't have dangerous machinery and humans
mixing. It would not make sense. So it also makes sense to have absolute
barriers in public between the two.

The concept people prefer to walk only holds when that person wants to walk in
place X and doesn't want 'other' humans to at that 'time and place' to be
driving. Just like we all hate traffic jams, which really means we wish
everyone else was not on the road.

Driving gives us unbelievable freedoms and amazing access to things otherwise
impossible.

There is no conspiracy, it's just some places are not as well designed as
others to get the two to work together, yet.

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littletimmy
That you claim that there is no conspiracy is empirically false. The street
used to be exclusively for pedestrians. Read about car manufacturers in the
USA and how they conspired to bring down both pedestrian traffic and also
public transportation.

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littletimmy
The US is a dystopia, no surprises there. What a shame that all humans are
anymore are an outpost of corporate greed.

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p1mrx
This is just a temporary setback. Soon, walking will be available to everyone,
using VR at home.

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simonh
You'll be able to 'go for a walk' from the comfort of your living room couch!

