Us Old Dogs

            There was a time when ‘transportation’ meant walk, bike or bus.  That was after the word meant getting sent to Australia or Georgia to a penal colony.  And it was before transportation meant, “Get in the truck!”  It was a time when walking several blocks to the grocery store was how things were done.  Bicycling a couple of miles to the theater was de rigueur.  You took the streetcar, and later the bus to go downtown to the ‘department store’ or across town.  It was a greener world, and we have left it behind.  Today, when you go past a new car dealership, mostly what you see is enough SUV’s and 4WD trucks to turn the earth green with stomach tremors.  Times have changed, and so has our architecture, or rather municipal design.  We are nearing the logical conclusion of an automobile-centric concept of living.

            These days, the fringe is where people are talking about rating cities for “walkability’ and deeming it an asset to living well.  It is not a place where curb sidewalks are popular in residential areas—they are common, maybe even necessary in America’s downtowns—but dangerous places for families to walk where vehicle speeds increase, and speeders abound.  Pedestrian friendly design deserves a comeback.

            Around here, we frequently visit larger cities, and are plagued with the notion that we are doing it wrong (forgive the grammar).  Us old dogs remember when walkability was a way of life, not a fringe concept.