“Carless in Atlanta” from SaportaReport
Just in case you might have missed it, Fred Yalouris of the Beltline has penned an interesting ode to walking that you can read here at SaportaReport.
Please take a look at it, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to highlight a few sentences that, I think, amplify some of the things I’ve tried to convey here from my own walks around Atlanta.
Yalouris quotes his friend Heather Alhadeff, a transportation planner for the city, who remarks that “the most profound effect, that one only appreciates once you have taken the leap to walk instead of drive, is that by walking you are effortlessly re-calibrating your psyche.”
Oh so true! When I’m having a bad day, I do whatever I can to walk, even if just for 15 minutes because I know I will feel differently when I’m finished (and in fact, I won’t actually want to finish walking; I will want to keep wandering and exploring because those activities unmoor the mind).
Yalouris also writes, “We need to think twice before getting into the car. Perhaps that errand can be accomplished on foot!”
Another oh so true!
You could say I’m lucky to live in a place where I can walk to do errands, but actually it’s all by design. When I returned to Atlanta, I only looked at houses that were near shops, restaurants, services such as drycleaners and parks.
Without getting in a car and within a 10- or 15-minute walk from my house, I can:
Fill a prescription; pick up drycleaning; have brunch; buy milk and other staples; work out at a gym or a yoga studio or a park or the track of a local high school; visit a doctor; have my nails done; eat and drink at establishments that range from a low-cost pub to some of the city’s finer restaurants; and have my hair cut.
What would I like to do without getting in my car? Listen up development world: ALL OF MY SHOPPING! (I fantasize about buying one of those old-lady shopping carts for when they finally put a supermarket on Memorial)
What can YOU accomplish without getting in a car? And what do you wish you could walk to?
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Comments
4 Comments on “Carless in Atlanta” from SaportaReport
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Jack Stenger on
Mon, 28th Dec 2009 2:32 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Mon, 28th Dec 2009 5:31 pm
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Jack Stenger on
Tue, 29th Dec 2009 12:01 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Tue, 29th Dec 2009 5:02 pm
(Little bit stumped why a radically simple non-car “in-between” transport alternative has not been championed on this blog or in the Saporta Report …) Like any other “intown prog” I love walking, as well. But …. to get around, I ride a bike everywhere in Atlanta and this is much quicker than walking! Much quicker!
When you say radical non-car “in-between” transport alternative, do you mean bikes?!
Biking is certainly a great way to get around Atlanta, and unfortunately, I am not a super confident biker so I tend to only take my bike to certain places (like to Turner Field, which is essentially a straight shot from my house). I don’t find Atlanta traffic to be particularly receptive to biking and I don’t want to get hurt while I’m “making a point” about alt transport.
Good for you that you bike around town, because yes, you are right: it is quicker, and it’s also fun. It’s amazing how your perspective changes once you’re on two wheels (even as opposed to walking).
Atlanta seems to be ideally suited for biking since many neighborhoods are just far enough away from eachother to make walking between them tough.
Jeanne: Yes, bikes are indeed the RNCIBTA (i.e., radical non-car “in-between” transport alternative) I speak of. Completely understand what you said and I will readily concede that – in some respects – cycling in ATL is not for the faint of heart. Drivers here can be of either the retrograde or clueless category and this can make for the occasional crashing-to-asphalt experience that’s never pretty. (Been there …) Do wanna say, though – trying to be an advocate here! – that the above possibility is usually the result of careless or daredevil cycling activity. (The hipster single-speed velo types are notorious for such vehicular derring-do and doing it in a non-helmeted manner …) The bike is a transitional device, but one that can effect great urban change. In the 60s and 70s, the GA DOT bequeathed us our current hellish autotopia. Because everything’s so spread out here, walking is not practical option if you wanna go from, say, Mechanicsville to Morningside. The bike, then, is the solution. You can cover a lot of ground quickly. And if more people cycled – and even more of the faint of heart – we’d more effectively chip away at the mess that Tom Moreland and his pavement-loving cadre gave us. So … for any trip you make (even to the monstrous Turner Field) I salute you! (Here’s hoping that they’ve thought of putting a bike rack up at our sterile and corporate “ball park” … )
I can confirm that there are bike racks at Turner Field. it’s a great place to bike because driving there is so awful!
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