The lack of Pedestrian culture in America

[BegintheBeguine]

Got my driver's permit at age 28

When I was 4, and they tested my IQ to get me into kindergarten early, they sked me if you could walk down hill to a place, then downhill somewhere else then downhill home or some such silly question. I assume the answer was no cause I got into the class.

So, not to call your IQ into question, but....

lol It's not ONLY uphill, of course. Or if you are not going home after school but some other uphill place first, then home later. See, now I'm not the only one thinking about this. Say, I was 4 when I was in Kindergarten but I didn't have my IQ tested at the time. Then I graduated from high school early. It's been all downhill from there, obviously.

 

[Twitch]

As I mentioned in St. Louis the bus system which ran north-south and east- west and used a transfer system really worked! The times between busses was not extrodinary and you felt as though you were actually getting somewhere. Unfortunately I haven't lived anywhere else where it worked as well. Certainly the many eastern cities have adequate transport besides NYC. I hope....

Out west as others have mentioned busses are a joke and distances are pretty long for much walking. In the average 50-80,000 inhabitant locales public transportation is usually non-existant, period. The population doesn't generate enough revenue for a serious transport system and most towns and environs of this size I've been familiar with couldn't be connected well often due to meandering geographic layout.

Certainly the walkers can't procure and transport a weeks worth of groceries from a store 2 1/2 miles away. Inclement weather negates the feasibility of the shoe leather express for all but the most robust. How do you shop at a mall 5 miles distant and haul your purchases home? This leaves taxis for realistic transportation for all other needs, again, a car.

If in the Southern California area if you had the need to, say, visit a new doctor you would be presented with a scenario of seeking out bus schedules and studying them thoroughly in hopes of finding a combination of routes that would get you there and home again. Most routes here are not a north-south, east-west transfer layout like old St. Louis. They are circuitous ventures that turn left and right and even double back seemingly in an effort to hit what is alegedly a number of stops serving a maximum number of people.

This doctors visit could very likely end up in consuming the greater portion of your day even if it is perhaps just a 25 mile round trip. If you are in any way infirm due to illness or age you're better off with a taxi- a car.

Sure the old US cities had a transport infrastructure like Europe due to the fact that they had been fixed in layout long before the advent of the auto. But many of the urban, suburban and semi-rural areas of the US actually began to grow only after the invention of the automobile. Comparing is really apples and oranges and we're left with the fact that the transportation void exists for many people.

 

[Fletch]

It is all about attitude.

Of course, you could always go for the total alcoholic loser who needs aride everywhere schtick. SOme women find that irresistable.

Some women find alcoholics irresistible. But very few find losers irresistible. Even smart, talented, funny losers. (There are such people.)

 

[Paisley]

In Denver, there are local buses (which stop about every two blocks), limited buses (which stop about every one to 1/2 mile) and express buses (which make a few stops out in the boonies before heading downtown).