I love walking, and when not roughly the size of a whale with two parasites living in me I enjoyed long regular walks. The job I just vacated had me walking a minimum of 14 miles a day five days a week (during the slow season, never was able or wanted to keep track during the busy season, as it's more than twice as busy, easily).
All that said, a lot of the south, especially Atlanta and it's surrounding suburbs, are not set up for walking. Sidewalks are few and far between, often making walking dangerous. Crosswalks are exceptionally far apart from each other, making getting from one side or the other either difficult or dangerous. As a matter of, if you google "pedestrian fatality atlanta" you'll find that while the rest of the country has declined in pedestrian fatalities, Atlanta did not. I can't find figures for this year, but our 2004 statistics were far beyond the rest of the country. In 1999 the CDC even declared Atlanta as the highest in pedestrian fatalities. There was a caucus on what to do about it. The problem is that nobody cares. Rich people have cars, poor people walk. Rich people contribute to political campaigns, poor people do not. Rich voices speak louder and clearer than the poor. Several times since I moved here 16 years ago have there been public forums on expanding the transit system, but it doesn't happen. One, it is unbelievably underused and two, more moneyed suburbs have again and again said that they do not want transit coming to their area. That it would bring people from the poor areas to their area to rob and steal. Seriously. Read between the lines and there is a very, very racist statement there coming from the suburbs.
This city is racist and classist. They want to stay separated.
Until the rich take it to their heads to walk around regularly, or use Marta the transit will suck, (really, if you don't live where the trains are, and have to take the buses, you have to add on a half hour to an hour to any trip time) there will be no sidewalks regularly, crosswalks will be hard to find and placed too far apart and people will continue to die on the Atlanta streets at a higher rate than the rest of the country simply because it's an ignorable problem.
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Date: 2008-08-01 01:13 pm (UTC)All that said, a lot of the south, especially Atlanta and it's surrounding suburbs, are not set up for walking. Sidewalks are few and far between, often making walking dangerous. Crosswalks are exceptionally far apart from each other, making getting from one side or the other either difficult or dangerous.
As a matter of, if you google "pedestrian fatality atlanta" you'll find that while the rest of the country has declined in pedestrian fatalities, Atlanta did not. I can't find figures for this year, but our 2004 statistics were far beyond the rest of the country. In 1999 the CDC even declared Atlanta as the highest in pedestrian fatalities. There was a caucus on what to do about it.
The problem is that nobody cares. Rich people have cars, poor people walk. Rich people contribute to political campaigns, poor people do not. Rich voices speak louder and clearer than the poor.
Several times since I moved here 16 years ago have there been public forums on expanding the transit system, but it doesn't happen. One, it is unbelievably underused and two, more moneyed suburbs have again and again said that they do not want transit coming to their area. That it would bring people from the poor areas to their area to rob and steal.
Seriously.
Read between the lines and there is a very, very racist statement there coming from the suburbs.
This city is racist and classist. They want to stay separated.
Until the rich take it to their heads to walk around regularly, or use Marta the transit will suck, (really, if you don't live where the trains are, and have to take the buses, you have to add on a half hour to an hour to any trip time) there will be no sidewalks regularly, crosswalks will be hard to find and placed too far apart and people will continue to die on the Atlanta streets at a higher rate than the rest of the country simply because it's an ignorable problem.