Lazyness and walking

In My Humble Opinion
41

I think pbbth recently moved to NYC, hence her loss of 50 lbs.

Ha. Nassim Taleb is recently one of my intellectual heroes, but when I read this, I actually wanted to throw the book across the room. There are lots of good and obvious reasons for taking the escalator to use the stairmaster. Taleb is not usually lazy, but I think here he kind of blew it. Yeah, he made his point about domain specificity, but sheesh, among other reasons, some footwear is just not made for taking stairs. If he saw a woman on the stairmaster in three inch heels, well, he’d have a point.

42

That’s the way it is with the humidity down here. Once one accepts the sweat, there’s nothing really stopping one from getting exercise. I put on unwashed clothes, grab a hand towel and just get out there.

43

I can’t speak for the other walking enthusiasts here, but I’m not trying to look down on anyone for not walking; I think we’re just trying to get people to think about their habits a little more. Yeah, you don’t want to carry 50 pounds of groceries home from Safeway, but sometimes all you need is bread, and it might make a nice walk on a lovely evening to go just for that. I personally hate almost all forms of exercise except walking, so I understand if walking just isn’t your thing.

44

If I had one of those while I was in college instead of a regular bicycle, I would have been set for not having a car and would have used my bike more often. :slight_smile: If I weren’t required to drive along a larger stretch of 55 mph highway to get to the grocery store these days, I’d consider biking to the store and back for small grocery runs.

I enjoy walkable cities and towns, and always have. I spent enough summers in Iceland that walking about Reykjavik to pass the time was a great thing. I could walk to the grocery store, the public pool, a soccer field, the park, and the downtown shopping street wasn’t very far from my grandfather’s front door. It was really awesome.

The neighborhoods I grew up in when I was in South Florida weren’t as good. We could walk to the hospital and a small shopping center (anchored by a laundromat, 7-11, and a Chinese restaurant), but it was in a seedier area of town. The house after that is situated in a community much like dalej42’s; I can walk to several places that are a block away, but I get to spend 10 minutes just getting out of the community to do so. It was good for when I had my first job that I could walk there, but I didn’t really spend much time walking around. I did, however, bike to the different stores on occasion.

I went off to college and discovered the joys of walking in Tallahassee. Living on campus was great for walking, and I lost a lot of weight due to the walking and the lack of money for food during the first year. :smack: I moved to a place within walking distance of campus for my third year, and that worked out really well. I’d walk downhill to class every morning, and I’d either walk all the way back or take the bus for part of it at the end of the day. It all depended on how tired I was. The last year I was there, however, I ended up moving out of the student areas and took the bus to campus. It did affect how much walking I was doing, but I didn’t get any less “on campus” walking than I did when I was living closer to campus. I must admit that I miss the walk from the southeastern side of campus to the downtown area; it was very relaxing.

These days, I live about 5 miles from work, most of which is along that bit of old highway. Once I get there, I enjoy walking everywhere, as it’s in a downtown area with lots of little shops and restaurants. If I could afford to live close to the downtown area, I would move there or to another town in the Orlando area that has a good walkable area nearby. I really enjoy walkable towns and cities, and it’s something I’d like to be able to have someday when we buy our own home. For now, I’m just looking forward to the fact that there’s a gas station with a mini-mart that’s opening up in the next six months that I can walk to if I just need a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. I could walk all day as long as I have the right shoes on, but sometimes it’s just not practical to walk everywhere.

45

My reasons for not walking to work are similar: would have to get up quite early for a walk/hike of several miles, at least one of which would be up a steep hill;
I would be dragging my trolley bag with me (I teach college classes) plus a purse and lunch bag; I would be a mess by the time I got to the classroom no matter what the weather was. It’s not that far to drive, so I drive. If I could find a bus schedule that made sense, I might take the bus.

I do enjoy a two-mile walk around the neighborhood tract streets with a neighbor in the evenings, but then we can go home and shower. I also like tromping around museum grounds, historical districts, vacation spots, etc.

46

I am so glad that my husband and I work and go to school and live all within walking distance of great bars, clubs, restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, just about anything we could want (other than Target, which is pretty much the only thing we do with the car in the city). My work is a 10-15 minute walking commute; his school is about a 40 minute walking commute (or 10 minute-ish bike ride).

We walk to the grocery store with backpacks unless the weather is really bad (blizzarding or pouring rain) and go a few times a week rather than trying to get a week’s worth at once.

We went a year and a half without a car and it didn’t prevent us from doing much other than doing stuff up in the mountains (hiking, camping, etc.). The bus system here is pretty good, plus there’s a light rail that is ever-expanding. Denver is surprisingly walking-friendly, and I say this as someone who lived in the Bay Area for many years.

However, our neighborhood (Capitol Hill) isn’t so great if you are looking to buy a house with a yard. We rent the first floor flat of a Victorian and love it, but there’s no way we could afford anything but a condo in our neighborhood if we were looking to buy.

47

Funny cultural difference between the Netherlands and the US:

We Dutch walk everywhere. Distances are tiny, and walking combines well with dense inner cities and public transport. Walking ia the national sport.

On the other hand, we Dutch are pussies when it comes to driving. The idea of driving several hours to go to a restaurant, or to visit, or to go to a weekend destination? We just don’t do it. It’s scary and dangerous and much, much too tiring to sit behind the wheel of a car for more then an hour at most. Driving for several days cross country, as Americans do without much thought, is a HUGE undertaking for the Dutch.

48

You know, there’s a Ministry for that.

49

Ah, well welcome pbbth and congratulations on your newfound health.

Well, I don’t know what the Beverly Hills gym to which he was referring is like, whether he was talking about an escalator IN the gym, or one leading TO the gym.

50

Heh. This pretty much confirms that I am secretly Dutch and somehow got swapped at birth, something that I have suspected on and off for a while :slight_smile:

51

Walking is my favorite mode of transport. You get to feel the weather. You meet people in your neighborhood- people your may not normally meet. You see strange and beautiful things. You get to think. You get some light exersize and come back happy and refreshed. I don’t think I could ever be happy in an unwalkable place, and I plan to never live in one.

Good motivation to by more fresh veggies and less cans and boxes!

52

I don’t walk as much as I used to. I used to do it a lot when I had no car, just to get to the station when I was commuting. But with a car, I drive to work (it’s SIX TIMES quicker), and I don’t have anywhere nice to walk to around here. The shops are not close but are quite walkable, yet carrying many pounds of groceries with those mean little plastic bags digging ito your fingers does tend to take the gloss off walking.

For me to walk now, I have to make a conscious decision to “go for a walk”. I prefer walking on the way to somewhere useful.

53

I live just on the edge of downtown in my town… My work is probably 6 blocks away from downtown, I’m on the other side of it.

I often walk to work and grab a coffee at my favorite coffee shop on the way through downtown… I often run into a couple people I know on the way through the downtown area before I start into a few residential blocks.

I asked a friend if they wanted to go to dinner downtown from my place… she said she wanted to drive… and on such a nice evening… no less. We ended up walking (I told her looking for a parking place would probably take as much time as walking) and she complained about the distance… I don’t think it was even 5 blocks.

I was confused… I walk well over twice the distance to work each day and think nothing of it… and sometimes its not the best weather.

54

A friend from the UK made an interesting observation about Houston - “Why does it have so many shoe repair shops when nobody walks anywhere?”

In my previous job I lived 1.5 miles from the office. I’d walk if I wanted to pick up something from the store on the way home and would cycle otherwise. Now I live about 13 miles from the office. It’s 25 minutes to drive. A safe cycling route would be about 15 miles so would take about an hour. Public transport would mean 2 trains and about 30 minutes walking or over an hour in total. My car rarely moves on the weekends, I’ll walk to the shops, pubs, or restaurants.

55

That’s got nothing to do with being north. Of all the pictures I took while I lived in Miami, the one that’s got the highest value as a conversation piece is one that shows a stretch of sidewalk looking like it’s been hit by several earthquakes and disappearing when it reaches the next property because, you see, while in Spain sidewalks are Public Property, in much of the US they belong to whomever owns the house. So if a homeowner doesn’t feel like a sidewalk, no sidewalk. At least that’s the explanation I was given.

When Mom and Lilbro came to visit me in Philly years later, one of the things they remarked was “at least this time you got to be in a walkable place!”

56

Anybody remember a 1960’s PSA from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, where in the future robots (protrayed by actors in whiteface wearing head-to-toe white body stockings) are carrying boxes through white hallways? A robot puts its box in an alcove,and it’s revealed to contain a living human head with no body, which spouts mathematical jargon. When he’s finished, the head calls for the robot but it doesn’t respond.

No? Well, anyway, my point is that walking improves ones arterial health and you can remember osbscure stuff like 40 year old PSA’s

57

I have about 1/2 mile walk on either end of my commute, so I get a base of 2 miles in every day. We intentionally bought our home in a location where many many needs/conveniences - train, schools, movie theater, grocery store, library, etc. - are less than a mile away, convenient for walking/biking.

IMO, the only inconvenient aspect of walking is that it does take more time, so you have to plan for trips to take a little longer. Whereas you might hop in the car, hit the store, and get home in 15 minutes, it might take you 15 minutes just to walk to the store.

I definitely don’t believe that most people lack the time required to walk many moderate distances. But I do believe many folk like to THINK of themselves as so busy that they cannot spare the time. Add in the desire for immediate gratification, and the dislike for planning.

My kid - HS Jr. - works at a DQ less than 1 mile from our door. She is the ONLY employee who walks to work. And her co-workers have given her a hard time about walking. To my kid’s credit, she enjoys the time walking to and from, and as she does not care to do many sports/exercise, she appreciates that this way she at least gets SOME exercise.

I work downtown Chicago. One of the beauties of Chicago is how walkable it is. But if my job requires that people go somewhere a mile or so from our office, just about everyone will take a cab. I wouldn’t dream of cabbing a distance less than 2 miles, unless time was ultra-tight, or the weather was horrendous.

58

I think that’s largely true, but I also think that the body of people it doesn’t apply to isn’t exactly marginal either.

In my case, my work is about five miles away (maybe less). To commute by train involves some good walking (walking which I miss) of fifteen minutes to my local station and twenty or twenty-five at the work end. The train takes half an hour, because the line is like a sideways U shape with my home and my work at the tips of the U (there is a direct road there though). And the timetable was such that I needed to get to work twenty minutes early. It is an hour and a half each way by walking/train or fifteen minutes each way by car. Now, I’m not a high-powered executive, and I have no dependants at home - so I can find the extra time, but we’re talking here about an extra two and a half hours over the daily return trip - twelve and a half hours extra a week. It’s not something you can easily ignore.

59

The explanation you were given is wrong.

Sidewalks are placed in the public right-of-way and, while the property may belong to the citizen, s/he grants the local government the right to construct and maintain a sidewalk across their property at the time of the development of the property.

The sidewalk does not belong to the property owner.

60

I walk. I walk almost everywhere except to NYC (but I walk a lot when I get there) and to the malls. Yesterday was my day off and I made the 30 minute trek to the shopping center two towns over. I do at least a mile of outside walking every day. Good for the body and the mind.

One day a total stranger stopped me in the street and said “I just wanted to tell you I say you walking every day and noticed how thin you were. I thought ‘If she can do it, so I can I.’ I’ve been walking every day for four months and lost 50 pounds. Thank you.” I was totally flabagasted. I now see him occasionally while out walking, and he has thinned down.

Walking saves gas and money and it gets you outside. Spend money to drive to a gym to spend money to work out inside? FIE! I will walk every day until the day I’m in my casket.