Can you elaborate just a little? Glen Burnie is one of my options - are there specific areas of it that I should avoid settling in?
I have friends that live in Anne Arundel, specifically in Severna Park. I guess walking around there would be possible, as long as you were more in the neighborhoods, but seeing how much of the nearby shopping is directly off the Ritchie Highway, I can’t imagine not owning a car. I don’t really know that much about Maryland, but from what I’ve seen of that county, I can’t imagine being able to get around without a car. I’d agree that the only city I could think of where it would be possible would be Annapolis.
asterion hit the magic words:
Once you get out of the Crain Highway (MD 3) and Baltimore Annapolis Blvd (MD 648) intersection area (where you have a nice little shopping plaza and a State Courthouse and a generally nice feel), heading north on Ritchie, you get out of nice walking area into a very pedestrian unfriendly area, and the type of scenery that tends to encourage unsavories. Though I admit, I say this much more out of reputation than out of experience.
NH had all of 20 murders in 2005, so I wouldn’t be much concerned about being a victim of violence were I able to walk to work. (I suppose I techically could walk to work, if I got started by 4am I might be able to make the whole 15 miles by 8…) Worrying about being run over by some idiot since there are very few sidewalks in this area, on the other hand, is a more realistic concern. Or breaking a leg on ice in the winter, for that matter.
I was shocked when someone claimed that they drove to work - a block away - because they were scared that they’d be bothered if they were out before it got light in the morning. They must be in an area with a lot more crime if they’re scared to walk for ten minutes. I’d definitely walk if work was a block away - but I’d bring a flash light 
My (half Canadian!) friends who live in AA County (Hanover) don’t even lock their doors. Of course, she’s crazy. And a doper, so she’s probably reading this.
I think you will be safe. Or I’ll let you borrow my bike, if you want. I don’t use it.
Oh for Pete Sake! I don’t walk to work, but I walk to the bus stop all of the time. It’s a few blocks away. And I walk from my office back to the bus stop, a few more blocks. Plus I walk to my gym which is several blocks from the office (soon to move within 2 blocks though), as well as to the mall several blocks away, to the little Mailboxes Etc type store about 8 blocks.
So far I’ve remained unmurdered and unraped. And if you’ll note my location, it’s dark this time of year for around 18 hours a day. So I walk to the bus stop in the dark, and then home in the dark. What a loony.
PS, I walk to all of those places near my office because I’m lazy. It’s too much trouble to find parking downtown for the workbeast (a GInormous GMC full sized everying), so I tend to leave it in the garage or at home unless I absolutely have to go to a worksite or pick something up too heavy to carry.
Hell, I live in the middle of Atlanta. I’ve often walked around way past midnight in some seedy parts of town, but who cares? Worst that has ever happened was a guy pulled out a full ounce of pot and asked for rolling papers. Some guy tried to sell me some socks, another one DVDs. So you might see some tweakers and some hookers, but unless it looks like you’ve got business, they ignore you.
You never know when someone might force feed you lutefisk and lefse!
It’s the 40 block thing that makes walking to work more unheard of - that’s a long walk, long enough to make many people think twice. I live 20ish miles away from my job by car, 19ish by bike - which I do, every so often when the weather is better. Many of my co-workers live farther and drive longer to get there…walking just isn’t practical.
But if I lived within a mile or two of work, I’d like to think that I’d walk.
It’s unheard of for people to walk anywhere in the States. We drive to strip malls, and when we want to go to the other end of the strip mall we get in the car and drive there. That’s why we’re all 300 pounds.
Ok, I exaggerate…a bit. But it’s something of a…er…betenoire for me. A lot of places (like where I’ve been living for the past year) don’t even have sidewalks. So when I wanted to take a stroll to the store down the street I had to walk in the street, that is, the highway with trucks doing 60 a foot away from me. Because of course real people have a car. Or they shouldn’t leave the house.
Now I’m back in a town that has (residual) sidewalks so I can make it to the corner. I just can’t leave as we also have no public transportation. That would be silly.
Bitter? Moi?
When I lived in South Miami, I walked to work and to the supermarket (if I was going to the one nearby). When going to the supermarket, since it was 4 blocks away and worked 24/7 I made a point of doing so at the break of dawn, before the sun was strong enough to boil my brain through my hair. The closest thing to an assault I suffered was a cop asking me for a date - maybe the bad guys were all in bed?
When I lived in Philadelphia, again I walked pretty much everywhere. I was able to get an apartment 6 blocks from work and local regs made it impossible for me to obtain a permanent car without breaking some law or other. When I needed one, I rented it.
It is unusual, but not unheard of. In some locations it’s pretty much impossible, though, but that applies to every country.
:dubious: I walk a couple miles each day and even if I had a car at the moment I probably would still to save on gas and to exercise (I do live in a smallish town, though). Maybe if I lived in downtown Miami I wouldn’t want to walk that far, but if the weather is fine and if the evil crackheads, gang members, and mysterious old men with candy are not out in force I have no qualms with walking that distance.
Oh, another thing.
In Miami I lived in South Miami (gasp) in a bad part of town! Why was it a bad part of town? Because there were lots of blacks. Black doctors, black lawyers, tons of retired black old ladies, black construction workers… es-pa-re me! (that’s Spanglish)
In North Miami, ohmyGawd, I was just at the edge of Little Haiti! And I walked there to shop! Oh NOES! There was one incident where a panhandler started begging from me (I assume he was begging, I couldn’t understand him) and the store owner shooed him off saying “man, for one new face we get here and you try to scare em off”. My mostly-hispanic apartment building was across one road from Little Haiti, across another from a very affluent part of town. The one neighborhood that people associated us with was LH, never the “rich white folks’ area”.
Some times the notions that people who have never set foot in a part of town have about its dangers are blown out of proportion. And way too many times they’re just flat racism.
As an American with a decent knowledge of a few different suburbs and types of urban planning, I think the biggest issue is simply the walkability of cities rather than any criminal activity. Drivers can be pricks and fail to yield at crosswalks or when making right turns, but we’ve got to get this critical mass of walkers started somehow, right? Anyway, just check it out when you’re actually down there, but I predict a 95% chance that you’ll be able to find some decently pleasant route for walking to work.
You are so going to get mugged.
Seconded on the “glen burnie is hit and miss”.
Like parts of Baltimore, there are pockets of nice neighborhoods, and pockets of not so nice neighborhoods. . .the kind of neghborhoods I wouldn’t feel very comfortable with my wife walking through at 10:00 at night on a regular basis.
On the other hand, most of the places that aren’t always so nice usually have busses. If you’re working somewhere big (are you the one who was asking a few months ago about Maryland, maybe working at “Harbor Medical Center”?) then there are going to be plenty of busses that run there.
Lots of busses on Ritchie Highway.
Chalk me up as another person who walks. I own the shop so curiously (ha!) I set it up a convenient walking distance for me. Two long blacks and I’m there.
Prior to that I either drove or rode my bike.
But that’s in small town Ohio. Before that I had a 60+ mile commute.
The best thing about living within walking distance of your workplace is how much extra time you’ll have. That commuting time really adds up when you look at it properly.
There are definitely some people who believe this, and for the most part they should be ignored. At the same time, as in cities all over, most American cities have some bad neighborhoods that are best avoided at night. I can understand the need for due caution regarding certain neighborhoods in cities–for example South Central in L.A., but the idea that you shouldn’t walk anywhere, ever, is ridiculous.
In ordinary, middling-to-better neighborhoods you should be fine, day or night. In some regions of the country, you would not be very likely to find housing near your work, but in the longer settled areas (i.e. San Francisco and the East), that shouldn’t happen. Newer cities, especially the ones that have had most of their population growth after WWII tend to be more sprawling, and places are farther apart.
There does seem to be a thing about not walking here. I live in L.A., where I was rear-ended a couple of weeks ago, so I had to take my car to the body shop yesterday. Before going to the body shop I stopped at a car rental agency to fill out the paper work for the rental car, and to leave my things behind. Then I wanted to driver my car over to the body shop and walk back to pick up the rental car. Did I want someone to follow me over there with the car? No. Was I sure? Yes. It was only three blocks! Well, OK, they said, but if you change your mind call us from the body shop.
Seemingly unrelatedly, I had lunch in a Carl’s Jr. not long ago. It was the first time in a long time that I had done that, though I occasionally do pick up take-out there. And you know what? The tables in the booths were too far away from the benches. You had to hunker over if you wanted to reach your food. I wonder if that’s to make room for big bulging bellies. I had to move to a table where I could pull the chair up as I pleased. People in this country don’t walk enough.
Dude, the “A” isn’t even NEAR the “O” on the keyboard. Just what are you implying?
I live in Philadelphia, so I walk whenever possible. My last job was the first one where I had to commute. Hated that &*#@ commute. Hopefully the next job will be downtown so I can walk again.
I love walking. I walk from my neighborhood (near 20th Street) to my friend’s house (48th street) on a regular basis.