It’s unheard of for me to walk to work, but then, I live 30 miles from my work. I am extremely envious of all the people walking to work on my street every morning.
There is danger everywhere, if you think about it too much. You could get attacked by a dog, or a crazy person, mugged or raped even in a “nice” neighborhood. Your chances of that happening are rather slim if you take reasonable precautions, but there’s always a statistical possibility.
I walk to work unless the weather is inclimate. (The museum is about two blocks from my home.)
In residential neighborhoods, you’ll se a lot of people outside working on their yards, jogging, walking their dogs and whatnot. Criminals don’t usually like to accost people where there are a lot of witnesses, so you’re probably pretty safe in one of those.
If it makes you feel safer, you could always carry Mace (or whatever spray is legal in your jurisdiction). Take a self-defense class, and learn how to avoid looking like an attractive target.
Well, not walk…
In my 2 previous jobs, I bicycle commuted on a regular basis because I was close enough to make it practical, and I needed the exercise. I lived too far to walk, however.
Now I have a 45 mile one way commute, so it’s driving totally.
I’ve been walking from my living room to my office for about a year and a half now (about 6 steps) and I wish I could walk a couple blocks or so. The whole work-at-home thing can kind of get to you after a while.
I guess we’re going to have to start, now that you’re advertising it. Sheesh.
** Antigen **, My husband and I did something similar, he came down from YT on a T1 visa. He got on fine in Whitehorse with a bike for a few years, before bothering to get a car, but it was only a few months after moving down here that we decided getting him a nice beater of his own was necessary. It’s not so much that it’s unsafe to walk - more that the sprawl is not condusive to a walking public. Seriously consider budgeting for at least a cheap bike, and have a goal to upgrade it to a car asap.
Oh, and take any advise you can from locals about exactly which areas are good to live. Very nice safe areas are smack up against places you don’t want to live, willy-nilly. I don’t count as a local, having transplanted from south NJ, and needed the advise I got on choosing a living area.
I grew up in Glen Burnie, and I have a feeling that you’re talking about the area around North Arundel Hospital – but don’t feel that you need to confirm/deny if you’re trying to avoid stalkers. 
If I’m right, you’ll be fine in that area. Maybe be a little more cautious than usual if it’s very late at night, but it’s a pretty residential area so it’s not too scary. Just keep in mind that Glen Burnie is kind of a redneck town, and there is some drug activity in that part of it (my first apartment was walking distance from the hospital). I think if you only have a 15-20 minute walk you’ll be just fine. If you’d like information on any specific part of GB, feel free to send me an e-mail at the address in my profile.
Yesterday my boss was editing a manual and called me over to show me that someone had typed “white color crime” instead of “white collar crime,” and I said the same thing: the A and the O aren’t anywhere near each other!
I used to live in NYC, where, of course, you walk everywhere. But I also lived in suburban southeastern PA, where walking was rarely practical for anything–too far, coupled with too dangerous (the danger being getting hit by a car). Crime was never an issue.
I’ve also lived in 2 college towns (State College, PA/New Paltz, NY) where walking is standard for most things, but many expanded services (grocery shopping, for instance, or buying clothes that aren’t tie-dyed or blue-and-white) require a car to get to distant shopping malls.
Now I live in the sticks of the upper Hudson River Valley, NY. I never walk. Everything’s too far, and the roads are way too dangerous (again, getting hit by a speeding car). Sidewalks don’t exist. I actually have to drive my dog a half mile to a nearby school so that I can park and walk her down a less-busy side country road.
I’m eagerly anticipating our upcoming move to the Portland, OR, area, and the prospect of once again being able to walk into a village from our home.
Don’t worry. Nobody could find your house anyway; even if they did, Jango Fett would eat them.
Nothing unrelated about it. I hate those fucking tables; even when I was 250 they were still too far away from the benches. Now that I’m 200 they are probably a foot away. Thanks for making it easy to eat and rest my back at the same time, guys… :rolleyes:
Count me among those that say the problem isn’t crime, but cities that are not walking friendly from a logistical standpoint.
Sprawl is certainly a problem, but another issue are large obstacles that you have to detour around. Worst are freeways or interstates. These can often require miles of detour to an overpass or underpass. But there are many other obstacles as well: golf courses, gated communities, shopping malls, large industrial campuses, and just very large blocks of housing with no path through the middle of the block.
In many other parts of the world, you will find a stairway running right up a hill so that pedestrians don’t have to negotiate the switchbacks that the motorized traffic follows. You will have a foot path through the middle of any longish blocks of housing. You will find pedestrian tunnels under very wide and busy streets. There ARE places in the US where you will find such, but they are the exception.
Walk. I wonder why more people don’t do it. But from the evidence I see as an inveterate walker, almost no one is doing it. Here are the advantages:
- Exercise.
- Costs nothing beyond shoe leather.
- You can calculate the time of your commute down to the minute.
- You’re saving the freaking planet.
Think of it in moral terms, and you’ll conclude that there’s no alternative but to walk.
I’ve been walking to work for 20 years now. I do much of my shopping on foot, I walk to most medical appointments (though I take the subway to the dentist), and so on.
I wonder how the OP’s relative would react to my neighborhood. Not only do we have a lot of black people (the traditional marker of a “bad neighborhood”), but we have a good number of Muslims. (Cue Mr Bill voice: “Ohh NOOOO!”)
My apartment building overlooks a mosque. At this time of year morning prayers (half an hour before sunrise, so it’s still dark out) are breaking up at about the time I leave for work, so I turn the corner and walk through assorted swarthy guys in prayer caps. On a dark street. If it’s “not safe to walk” in America, I guess I’m already dead and too dumb to fall over.
In truth, most of my pedestrian scares come from people riding bikes on the sidewalk. I can and do keep my eyes and ears open for cars and people, but bikes behind you simply can’t be heard until they’re on top of you.
Well, my commute is an average of 9-12 miles, depending on what part of Manhattan I’m going to. Few of us from the outer boros–except yuppies who can afford to live right near the East River or in Park Slope or someplace like that–have the time to be able to walk to work.
Besides, from the northern Bronx I’d have to walk through the South Bronx into Harlem, across one of the old bridges across the Harlem River from one nasty, highway-riddled industrial zone to another. There’s no bike paths and mostly no pedestrian access either.
Most of NYC is perfectly safe–there’s only been one murder in my Bronx neighborhood in thirty years–and if I didn’t have those barriers to cross, maybe I’d try it. One of my friend Bob’s parishoners was caught in midtown during the blackout and it took eight hours to walk home, though. It’s not that easy when you have complicated geography.
I walked to work for twenty years. I never had any trouble from anyone but cops, twice. I only stopped doing it, because my knees hurt too much after I got to be about 55. I did have a very wide spread reputation about it at work, though.
Tris
I live in Tennessee and I’ve walked or biked to work every day for the past two and a half years. My meighborhood is not terribly safe, but the criminals are typically along the lines of homeless bums rather than hardcore thugs and gang members. I have never faced the slightest threat from any of them.
However, the attitude of your dad’s wife has been fairly common in my experience. Once, while in high school, I set out to walk home from chess club, a distance of three blocks in an entirely safe and placid suburban neighborhood. Another chess player’s mother saw me as she was driving by and stopped to harass me, informing me that I’d be unlikely to reach home alive if I didn’t accept a ride from her.
Don’t worry too much about your wide spread, Tris. That’s normal at your age.
I walk 10-12 blocks to and fro every day. I find it amazing that people find this amazing.
You walk to work? Every day? How far… ten blocks? TEN BLOCKS? Every day??? What - that’s ten blocks each way??? So that’s like, TWENTY BLOCKS EVERY DAY??? OMFG!!!
Ahem.
Ane Arundel is nice. I wouldn’t worry. If you’re going to be walking in the dark down empty streets, the farthest I’d go would be to have one of those shrieking alarm things on my belt just in case of emergency.
I walked home for a couple years. One day as I walked down the street I saw a big yellow dog and a 3 or 4 yr old kid on the porch. The kid said “Tick him”. The dog took off after me and I ran and jumped on a car. The dog owner came out and got the dog .
Next day when I got close to that house I crossed the street. Some woman opened her door to get the mail. Her poodle ran out and bit me on the foot.
I live in LA. The company I work for moved to an office space a mile from my apartment last May, so I started walking to work. My route takes me under one freeway and along a fairly busy, well-lit street, in a commercial and residential area.
A month or two after we moved in, someone shot a bullet through one of the windows that face the street. There was an investigation. We replaced all our windows with bulletproof glass. A few months later, another shot was fired through our window. This time we got the chief of police and mayor of the city involved.
They never figured out who was doing it, and just sort of assumed it was a vandalism thing, with no real message or intent to harm anyone.
I stll walk to work. It feels safe enough. Our building hired a nighttime security guard, who will escort you to your car if you want, and installed surveillance cameras throughout the property. The police have increased their patrols on our street. There have been no further shooting incidents. I have more fear of dumb LA drivers (who don’t know what crosswalks are, and drive like they are blind and simultaneously suffering an epileptic seizure and masturbating behind the wheel) than I do of stray bullets.
The scary part is my current arrangement is an improvement over my old one, which was walking a mile, catching the bus, and walking another five unlit blocks at 2 in the morning. I’m 29 and female. I carried pepper spray back then.
Years ago I promised myself I wouldn’t take a job I had to drive to. And with the exception of a 3-week temp job (which I could have reached by bus, but it would have taken 3 times as long…thanks, Seattle Metro!) I’ve kept my promise. My current walk to work takes about half an hour.
My wife has almost never driven to work, either. Again, this was a conscious choice…Seattle may not be the most pedestrian-friendly city in America, but a car-free commute is at least possible.
As for safety, we’ve never been too worried. In true Seattle spirit, any threatening-looking people only end up asking you for change and meekly taking no for an answer.