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Walk in the road, get somehwere
Originally published on February 22, 2010.
You have 5 minutes to get to a meeting, where do you walk?
(Two images looking north down Wellington St. in Traverse City: Gary L Howe Feb.19, 2010)
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Street reclaiming: walking is a fundamental right
We spend hundreds of thousands annually to keep the streets almost perfectly clear in the winter. We do this for the privilege of having a network of streets that we have dedicated to automobile use. Due to circumstance and priorities, a cleared neighborhood street vs. an uneven, slippery and inconsistent sidewalk (see above) is the unfortunate norm in Traverse City.
Walk in the road, get somewhere.
If walking is a viable transportation choice for you and you need to get somewhere conveniently and in a timely manner–hop on the fast track…Safety is a concern, but be polite, be visible, be confident-it’s the motorist that by law must yield (meaning: slowing down and passing at a safe distance). US-DOT even suggest that you do it (albeit, they assume that sidewalks are usually cleared–sorry, not really.
When walking in the winter, are you comfortable walking in the street or do you stay strictly to the sidewalks?
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Monday’s Quote: Intentional design from the master
In a 2008 New Yorker story titled “Dymaxion Man: The visions of Buckminster Fuller“, you can find this gem of a quote that captures the crux of Intentional Design:
“I made up my mind . . . that I would never try to reform man—that’s much too difficult. What I would do was to try to modify the environment in such a way as to get man moving in preferred directions.“ – Buckminster Fuller
As this article points out, Fuller’s ideas & life had little concern for the way things have always been done.
Let’s not let legacies of the past get in our way.
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