Why does walking feel so intuitive when we’re in a city built before cars, yet as soon as we return home, walking feels like an unpleasant chore that immediately drives us into a car?

Have you ever had a friend return from a vacation and gush about how great it was to walk in the place they’d visited? “You can walk everywhere! To a café, to the store. It was amazing!” Immediately after saying that, your friend hops in their car and drives across the parking lot to the Starbucks to which they could easily have walked.

Why does walking feel so intuitive when we’re in a city built before cars, yet as soon as we return home, walking feels like an unpleasant chore that immediately drives us into a car?

  •  lemillionsocks   ( @lemillionsocks@beehaw.org ) English
    9•11 months ago

    Yeah Ive lived in places that if you look on a map and type stores, restaurants, and etc it’s technically walkable. In practice it’s narrow sidewalks straddling 45 mph roads with cars that are darting in and out of entrances. Whenever you have to cross the street you gotta pray the 45 mph car doesnt come into a right on red too hot and slam ya.

    Then after crossing 4 lanes, feeling the wind of dangerously close traffic, and walking past car centric not that great scenery you arrive at your destination. A parkinglot but from the outside. So now you gotta dart past the parkinglot road where drivers are at their worst and finally passed the parking lot before getting into the store.

    It’s doable but its not easy or enjoyable, and honestly kinda dangerous when you consider your surroundings, the speed at which cars are traveling, and how due to lack of pedestrian traffic they also dont expect you to be there crossing the street.