An Experiment: Walking instead of driving

My daily walk to work is exactly 4.0 miles. One way.

I started walking to and from work two days ago. My family thinks I'm nuts, but I think it's crazier to pay $2.30 for a gallon of gas. Today I drove because I have to get somewhere immediately after I leave work. Tomorrow, I'll be walking again.

I don't live in a city that has a good public transportation city despite being the state capital. It does have a bus system but it doesn't seem reliable enough to use to get to work on time every morning. It doesn't have bike lanes or pedestrian walks or even sidewalks in most of the city. But it is a city where people live and work. It has a pleasant downtown, by no means a forbidden zone to be avoided. There are museums and an Imax theater and restaurants, shops and state government. There are two major universities here and a significant community college too. There is an organized group of bicyclist, but they are the rare exception. There are a new bike lane being put in, but it will take years for those few to be completed and it won't result in a real network of routes to safely travel.

I live in the land of SUVs and pick-up trucks, it's a place where people talk on mobile phones while driving, the land of people not paying attention to how they are driving while talking. I live in the land of fried pies, bacon is an essential food group and menus list hush puppies with the vegetables. Obesity is a greater public health risk than the H1N1 virus. So, you'd think they'd care more about having a more walkable city, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's also the land of air conditioning, daily summertime rain storms and 90% humidity by 7AM. There are good reasons to not want to walk, who wants to arrive to work soggy? And yet, in two days of walking only saw one car with more than one person in it. Carpooling would save these folks a lot of gas money. More fried pies!

I've been very fortunate these first days, we've had unseasonably cool weather and low humidity. This will end soon. Walking from where I live is not easy but it's not impossible either. I start out on a two-lane road without defined shoulders but with a canopy of live oaks draped in Spanish moss, it's very shady.

There are desire paths worn through along the sides. I'm not the only person walking along this road. The first section of my walk lasts about half a mile and I cross two major intersections. Fortunately, each of these has pedestrian crossing lights. Unfortunately, they also allow right turn on red for vehicles.

After that stretch, I have sidewalk past some small businesses for a bit

and then I enter a beautiful city park (more shady, big trees) with well-maintained pedestrian paths, tennis courts and a swimming pool. Someimes I see friends in the morning H2O aerobics class. The paths are parallel to the street and go through a nice residential neighborhood.


Where the park neighborhood ends the state government buildings begin, I'm almost to work and I've walked just over 3 miles. The last half mile is along city sidewalks and includes one steep but short uphill climb. I give myself 90 minutes to get to work and don't rush my pace. Because I'm a naturally fast walker my normal pace would get me to work in unpresentable condition. At my current pace, my walk lasts about 1 hr 15. I leave home at 7:30 which gives me 15 minutes to stretch, cool down and change clothes. That's the other challenge to walking -- I have to carry my work clothes. Even at the moderate pace I'm walking it's necessary for me to change clothes for work. Fortunately, it's warm weather now, my clothes aren't bulky.

Overall, it's a nice walk. Only that first half mile is worrisome. The first thing that I noticed on Monday morning was walking I noticed all the things I would never see when driving. Wild flowers along the way, the way the terrain has some gentle undulations until I reach the government buildings, even how many cars only have one person in them yet every one seems to be heading in the same direction.


Eventually, I want to get my bike out of storage from another state and bike to and fro instead of walk. I like walking but it's adding 3 hours to my daily schedule which is too much for me.