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Is walking dying?

People run for fitness, some do walk for fitness because they can't run - but there doesn't seem to be that much "leisure" walking.

If you're in the suburbs, to walk to your shopping is to take your life in your hands - no sidewalks, long distances between all those wretched strip malls, generally unpleasant.
I used to walk all over the place, just for the pleasure, when I lived in a Montreal suburb - and I swear people regarded me with suspicion and confusion until they got used to seeing me every day. Nobody else walked, unless they had a dog.

Where we live now, only the poorest, down-and-out people walk in town. There are acres and acres of forest - empty of walkers, except for me. In Britain, it's become something of a political struggle as Rambler groups try to keep access to land open. We are beginning to see the same problem here - access denied as people buy up large areas of (mostly) shore-front property. There are "trails" in some areas, built at public expense, but these have been taken over by the ATVs. Too bad, but there's just not much demand for walking-only trails.

Before I moved to London I lived in Milton Keynes which is a much less urban town. I used to walk everywhere (mostly because the public transport was so bad). Now I live in London I've found that I wouldn't even consider walking somewhere half a mile away. I think part of the problem is that you get caught up in the mentalilty that you have to get where you're going as quickly as possible.

I did one walk from Kings Cross to Croydon but I was very drunk at the time

I used to walk from work to the local mall, and I used to walk from the train station to the comic shop. Actually if I get a job downtown, I'll return to walking a lot of places. Right now its not that convienent, that walk from work to the mall was a half hour on a good day.

It's funny, this was one of the major sources of culture shock when I moved from Colombia to Germany, and then to Canada.

You see, in Colombia (and I suspect most of Latin America) people don't go for walks. They certainly go places, and if there's no alternative way of transportation, they will grudgingly walk there, but to go for a walk for pleasure is unheard of. I have a German friend who volunteered in small-town Mexico, and he used to say that every time he went for a walk, he would get three or four offers of rides. When he tried to explain to people that he was walking because he liked walking, he would just get stares of utter disbelief. I can totally see that happening, my mother still won't walk say in a trail for more than 20 minutes, and for her that's already "going into the wilderness". The attitude is starting to change a bit, particularly in big cities (I guess acculturation is the right word here, we do get a lot of cultural influence from the north), but I think it's still safe to say that people much prefer say car rides to walks.

In Germany every weekend I had to go climb some mountain if I wanted to socialize with people. What a shock! The summers were particularly bad, every day that was a bit sunny meant that everybody HAD to be outside. What is up with that? I guess that comming grom a "sunny" country, I never had made the connection between sunny weather and being outside. Of course, German, and then Canadian weather did quickly beat me out of THAT particular way of thinking...

Nowadays, I'm happy to say that I will OCCASIONALLY go out for walks (even I can see that living in British Columbia and not hiking to take advantage of the scenery is extremely unwise). Sometimes I even have the idea myself. But I'll never be an avid hiker. I suspect that is something that is in my genes.

Juan

I hadn't noticed this, until recently when I was up in Maryland on a campout and went for a hike with friends. We had to stick to a back road because all the surrounding forest had been bought up and there were "No Trespassing" signs every couple of feet.

I walk every chance I get in the city, and when I'm on vacation. When I was in London a few years back, I spent hours just walking around the city. I did the same thing during a visit to Tokyo, and ended up losing almost 10 pounds after a trip of a few days' duration.

I also try to walk up stairs and escalators whenever I can. I find that walking and stairclimbing is just about the only exercise I get these days...

I try to get out for walks at least once a week. There are loads of trails and footpaths (not to mention bridleways for horse riding) to follow and depending on what you want you can spend a pleasant few hours on a deserted railway line walking with all the mums and dads and pushchairs or get right out onto the moors and fells and spend 10 miles and not see another soul.

Newcastle is physically quite a small city, true we have out of town malls, but a trip into the city centre shopping area and you spend all day walking around pedestrianised areas.

And like STU I try to walk up stairs etc

Here in Nashville it's waaay too spread out to walk anywhere, but we have some of the best and largest urban parks in the country, full of hiking trails. One summer I worked with teenagers on trail cutting, upkeep, cleanup, etc. One of the best jobs I ever had--talk about losing weight! Try being outside working all day, five days a week, in the Tennessee heat. I couldn't afford to go back and work again since that summer (didn't make enough $). God knows my fat ass needs to get out and walk more often....

Thats no small walk! You must have been very drunk!

So are you a Croydon boy? If so pop in past sometime as me and Sonnie both live there - well someones got to

It's all part of the mentality that comes from living in a country where you have to make the most of good weather. It's the same through most of Northern Europe. If the sun comes out, then you have to go outside because you might not see it for months afterwards. I think we Brits are the worst for that. irst sign of a bit of sun and all the podgy men with pasty white skin are walking around in shorts and t-shirts and all the girls are in summer dresses, goosebumps all over their exposed flesh because even though the suns out it's still only just above freezing. Course then when it does get a little warm we just complain because it's too hot. Heh.

I can't drive or ride a bike (yeah, I'm 27 and can't ride a bike. That seems to shock so many people) so I've pretty much always walked everywhere I go. I also come from a family where going for a walk is something that you do if you have nothing else to do. I can even be found going for a walk along the beach in Aberystwyth when it's only just above freezing, the wind is only a little less than a cyclone and the rain is horizontal. Mmm, fresh air. Or possibly just sheer bloody mindedness. 'It's the weekend, there's nothing we need to do and it's a shame to waste the day in front of the telly. Let's go and try and get pneumonia. Yay!'.

I do walk pretty much everywhere here in Manchester too. I live and work right in the city centre so there's really no need for me to have to travel anywhere very far and it's the only exercise I do. And even though Manchester is the third biggest city in the country (might even be second now. I think we overtook Birmingham last year in terms of sheer size) most of it is like little towns stuck together so the city centre itself is quite small. Twenty minutes across at most really. That means because of where I live everywhere that I might need to go is walkable. The only time I don't walk is if I'm going to Chris' house, but that's because if I were to walk it it'd involve walking along the motorway. Not the best idea in the world really.

When we're on holiday espeically Chris and I do walk everywhere. Whichever city we're in it's usual for us to get up early-ish (say eight o'clock. Not *really* early. We're on holiday after all) and then spend most of the day walking around, before going for a quick kip and a bite to eat and then walking around again most of the evening. Just seems the best way to see a city really. It's also how you discover all the little interesting things that you miss if you go everywhere by bus or train. As long as you have a decent map it's quite hard to go too wrong.

At the time I was living in Brixton, I was trying to walk hom but walk passed my house and kept on going without realising it.

I'm now living in Bow which makes me a cockney eastender, cor blimey guvnor!

Kings Cross to Croydon? Bet your feet hurt...

Hope there was someone at the other end to rub them for you....

Cor blimey strike a light guv'nor up yer apples and pears with your dodgy barnet fair etcetcetc.... I wish I'd read this before posting my previous post.... oh well...

I'm going on a culture hunt in Hackney this weekend so if you fancy a jaunt around some galleries gi's a PM

Here in NYC all we do is walk, walk, walk!

lil'rhino

Hackney has culture?!

It's actually my other halfs birthday this weekend so I'll be spending all my time helping him get used to the idea of getting another year older

Well, give him a big LW hug from us!

And don't go see any scary movies.

Actually we may be seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre. How much more romantic can you get than that.