Expand our thinking to encourage walking

It's the first day of spring and the residents of Anytown are getting ready for work and school. They will not feel the silky cool air wisp across their skin or hear the morning birds chirping giddily. They enter and leave the premises without breathing fresh air. Anytown people use an encapsulated air- and sound-conditioned vehicle, exit from an enclosed garage and enter a workplace isolated from the environment. When they return home, they will not have heard their neighbor say hi or hear the trees rustle in the wind. How did this happen to the unsuspecting residents of Anytown?

The automobile took over, hogging pathways for themselves, making walking impossible and biking a dangerous substitute. Eventually roads smothered the landscapes, dividing farms, splitting towns, connecting everything with cement and asphalt. The reality is that automobiles in the United States overwhelm the cities and towns.

We need a national pedestrian pathway.

Be open to innovation and invite discussion for using public property and taxes for new and better ways to connect communities and their shopping and business districts.

People like to walk given the opportunity.

Sidewalks don't have to be next to a road. They can be a boardwalk, a riverwalk, a meandering pathway through backyards or high bridges or low tunnels between buildings. A pathway where people can move freely on foot, roller blades, bicycles, Segways and inventions yet to be developed, but there needs to be a national walking design that a person can follow iust as a car travels from A to Z.

I urge everyone to read about complete streets. The American Planning Association Complete Streets: Best Policy and Implementation Practices is a place to start. Many states have implemented their own ideas.

Let's meet on a skypath for a discussion or even just walk and talk on the wide open street; the automobile is parked just outside of Anytown.

Janet Schawel

Antioch