I ran across an opinion piece in Bloomberg the other day about how outside a few American cities, there are no places for people to walk. Walking used to be a thing we Americans did to run errands or go to school or work. As a result of lack of walking, our health is failing us. From Bloomberg (paywall):
The pre-Industrial Revolution norm has been estimated at 10,000 to 18,000 steps a day, and data from the US Census Bureau hint that Americans used to get in a lot more steps six decades ago, with the share of workers who commute primarily by walking falling sharply since 1960 (the percentage getting to work by public transportation, which often involves a lot of walking, is also way down, from 12.1% in 1960 to 3.2% in 2022).
What’s this got to do with sustainability you may be asking? Quite a lot, so let’s get into it.
There are a few reasons why we don’t walk like we used to but it really boils down to one large reason.
Traffic. Lots and lots of traffic.
Long Beach, where we live, has a map of the most dangerous intersections and corridors — labeled as ‘high injury.’ There are just too many cars and trucks on the roads. And those roads get widened every few years to accommodate more traffic while taking away sidewalk and bike lane space from people. And most bike lanes are unprotected leaving cyclists to contend with speeding, inattentive drivers.
