Walking isn't so bad
By
Jeffrey Fazio
DriveTime Columnist
As
much as I love driving, I have no objection to walking. In fact, I
rather enjoy it. Now I am not one to just go out for walk, but rather
I am one to walk to actually get some place when a car is not
available.
Once
you get passed the thought of "that’s too far to walk,"
you’d be surprised how far you can actually walk. The average person
walks at a pace of 4 mph. At that rate, you could find yourself quite
a distance from where you started in no time at all.
My
girlfriend and I frequently commute together to work, but I get
finished a half-hour earlier than she does. Sometimes I’ll take off
on foot when the day is done and let her catch up to me in her car.
For
short after-work walks, I’ll head over to VF Outlet to do a bit of
shopping. VF is roughly a mile from work so that comes out to a rather
quick 15-minute walk.
On
days that I felt even more inspired or motivated, I’ve walked as far
as the Fairground Square mall. The mall is just about four miles from
the Reading Eagle, and with the hills, it takes me about an
hour to get there.
The
after-work walks can be particularly amusing as I can frequently make
better time, going block to block, than some of the backed-up rush
hour traffic in downtown. As the cars break free of the grasp of the
city’s traffic lights, they eventually do fly past me, but I’m
still getting better gas mileage.
With
my love of cars, I’ve had my fair share of visits to mechanics to
get work done. As we all know, dropping your car off can be quite an
inconvenience, but it can also be an opportunity for one of these long
walks.
A
few years ago, I lived with my brother in Virginia Beach for a couple
of months and I needed to drop my car off to get some work done. Since
my brother was at work and I did not know anyone else in the area, I
was stuck without a ride back from the shop so I decided to walk to
the nearest shopping mall to kill some time until my brother finished
work.
It
turned out that the nearest mall was seven miles away, but that wasn’t
such a big deal as I had all day to get there. That was probably one
of my longest walks I’ve done, but it was really worth it as I got
to see a lot of the area.
Besides
the obvious benefits of saved gas and good exercise, walking offers a
wonderful opportunity to see more of the world. We tend to whiz by
lots of cool stuff in our cars and we often miss out on some really
nice stops along the way. I’ve found numerous small shops or
eateries while I’m out walking that I know I’ve missed time after
time while driving.
As
I write this column, I’m realizing that a lot of walking I’ve done
in the past has lead me to shopping. It’s fair to say I got that
from my mother. She was truly "born to shop" and I guess
that has been instilled in my genes somewhere along the way.
At
any rate, I encourage you to look at the map of your life to see which
paths you might be able to swap out your car for a pair of sneakers.
Although America will never give up its love of the automobile, that
doesn’t mean that the car has to always be our answer to getting
ourselves around. Using walking as a method of transportation really
instills a sense of accomplishment and freedom.
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