Walking for Joey

Joey Sobrino left the following comment on the post about how little Americans walk.

New Yorkers don't have qualms about walking. In America, and being that Canada is similar I am sure the same applies, we don't have the luxury of walking everywhere. How many Europeans that now are or live in the US walk places?

Joey - You are using NYC as the exemplar of America? Holy cow.

You have a point though. American cities like New York, or rather Manhattan, encourage, even demand, walking. Driving is a nightmare, and the subway and buses convenient and cheap (at least compared to the parking rates!). So people take a subway to the nearest point and walk rapidly to their destination. The Twin Cities were a lot like this, though waiting for a bus when it is 5 below is not fun.

A place like Atlanta, otoh, discourages walking. Inadequate public transport designed mainly, as was the bus system for that unnamed port city to the south, to move African American workers from the inner city to white suburbs and back again - so that it is much more practical to go by car. And it shows in the relative body weight statistics of the two places.

But what is responsible for the design of our cities? Part of it certainly is cheap gasaline, something the Europeans never went in for. A major part of the cost of gas in Europe is the tax bite - hence $6/gal gas. So even if you own a car, half again as expensive as here because of taxes, you take public transport and walk to your destination from the bus/metro stop. Our cities are strung out all over the place, roads and parking lots don't connect, and workers live far from the workplace with poor public transportation systems.

Is that the only explanation though? The town where I work, let's call it Crockett, is a nice, quiet mountain community surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Tourists come from all over to enjoy the outdoor life and activity, like hiking. But not in the town itself. Its town planning is the most pedestrian hostile environment I have ever seen. No sidewalks, narrow roads, two huge four lane highways intersecting with no regard for those afoot trying to cross. I once lived 3 miles from where I worked yet could not bike to work. There simply was no safe route. Why was this? My theory, which was confirmed by one of my American History colleagues, was that historically here in the South, if you didn't ride a horse you weren't worth worrying about, and that attitude has simply been transferred to cars.

Yet I have to wonder if even that explains it. Every day when classes end I see our 20 year old students hanging around the front doors of classroom buildings using their cell phones to tell their roommates/boyfriend/girlfriend to come pick them up with the car. From one end of campus to the dorms is less than a mile. I'd better stop with this thought - I am beginning to sound like a cranky old man.

But perhaps you could explain why the females of the most obese generation in the history of the planet favor fashions that leave exposed the cute little tummy rolls hanging over the waist of their jeans?

ps: Sadly, Elliot tells us Canadians are falling into the same habit. Don't know about Europeans who actually live here. The ones who visit are appalled.