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Pedestrian friendly is cool
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When it comes to walking, Florida is deadly. The beach is fairly safe but the mean streets of the sunshine states bigger cities can be dangerous, as in Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville. These and other Florida cities made the top of the list from a recent report about the more unfriendly cities when it comes to pedestrian traffic. In other words, it's tough crossing the wide streets common in Florida cities. Cities in Northwestern states like Washington and Oregon made the list as places where the streets and surrounding areas are more friendly to those who walk or ride bikes. That region of the country always seems to be more progressive. In my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, my family moved from a typical neighborhood in 1963 with houses close together to an outter suburb that had no sidewalks! That was my first awareness of the pedistrian unfriendly world that was then taking hold across America.
What began in the early days of our nation was a concept from the old world: a town square with living quarters and shopping areas all around. In Cincinnati, that idea can still be found in the older communities and those areas are very friendly to pedestrians and bikers because you can park your car and walk around to shop or have dinner and in a special case, actually see a movie at what used to be called neighborhood theatres. Beginning in the early 1900s, the automobile was making its way into the hearts of Americans and on the streets of an ever progressing country. As time went on, what was deemed progress would ultimately be seen as a grand mistake as cities all over the United States, rid their busy streets of electric streetcars to make way for the new and bigger automobile. The oil and rubber companies were thought to be behind much of this. Their profits rose with more cars on the road. As we realized in the 1970s just how addicted to oil we became and that our dependence was not a good thing because the middle east was already a wasps nest of violence and our needs forced us to become entrenched in that volitle region forever.
Traffic congestion became the norm along with an ever increasing move to outlying suburbs. That old town square was being replaced with shopping malls and eventually big boxlike stores the size of airplane hangers. The parking lots alone to these places are vast. The garages are huge and God forbid you get stuck there in traffic which always happens during the holidays. The areas where shopping mega malls are usually built around wide streets with fast moving traffic. Crossing these roads can be the only excercise many of our obese brothers and sisters get all week. By the time they get across, they are panting and bent over in exhaustion. Frankly, a little more walking would help these behemoths, many of whom have taken to scooters just to go to the grocery.
Maybe that is the point: we've designed and built a culture destined to spend etrenity in lethargy. From watching TV and operating video games and computers all day, we just drive from place to place and in some cases, go from that mode of transportation to a scooter just to shop! The streets and design of shopping areas in Florida and many other cities is unfriendly to pedestrians and forces the populace to drive everywhere. In Florida, senior citizens are plentiful and getting around by walking could be beneficial but not when the street to cross is akin to Washington crossing the Delaware.
We need to get back to where we once belonged; the town square concept and it is happening in some cities. Developers are aware of the pedestrian friendly idea and are designing entertainment centers with retail and condos. There is a garage and streets and sidewalks all built around fountains and other green space and places to sit, chat, shop and live. Easton Town Center in Columbus and City Place in West Palm Beach are two such concepts that attract tons of people. Many malls have taken on this idea and have redesigned their indoor world into something with many outdoor amenities. Besides the allure of the town square concept, designing people friendly shopping and living areas can be good for ones health. We need to get off our butts and walk more. Like most people, America usually has to learn things the hard way. We went through our nothing but auto mode of (so called) progress and realized we made some mistakes along the way. Street cars are coming back as the idea of mass transit is rediscovered for the obvious reasons. We are going back to the old ways that worked for centuries and the old town square concept is found to be quite cool even if it is square.
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