Walking restores the world and humanity

[The2ndWheel]

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=372&Itemid=1

There is only one way humans are made to move. They are basically made to walk. There are many other ways to get around. You can canoe, for instance. Or paraglide. Or jog or swim. But these modes of transportation are not the staple of human mobility. Walking is unavoidable, a necessity for those with two working legs.

The entire scheme of nature, and the human’s place within it, is built around the understanding that humans use their legs to move. It’s a great unspoken assumption. The earth expects humans to walk.

Wildlife expects humans to walk, and it has trouble with other forms of transport. North American drivers kill one million animals each day, nearly 12 animals per second. 400 million animals are killed by drivers in North America each year. Almost two million deer are killed on North American roads yearly.

[we can do it]

1. I Agree, Walking Restores Peace To the Mind

Great exercise and stress reliever. It can save time walking, too. Short trips can take nearly as long in a car.

[Fumesucker]

2. Whether walking is a reasonable option depends entirely on your community..

It's at least an hour walk one way along dangerous roads that often don't even have a shoulder, let alone a sidewalk, for me to reach the closest store that isn't a 7-11 type.. About half the year here you are going to arrive drenched in sweat since the heat and humidity are both high for five to six months straight.

I've been to Europe and NYC, walking is much more doable there than down here where I live.

Oh, and a bicycle is a far more efficient means of using human power than is walking, see my avatar, that is my actual recumbent bike.

[stuntcat]

4. nice bike!

I like it.

My balance is too bad to ride a bike and I can't drive either but I'm lucky to live in Arlington, we can walk to everything we need here. The tool stores are kind of far away but a temporary garden center opens in my grocery store's parking lot every year, that's where I'm walking to today :headbang:

I lived in NYC a couple of years and the tool store was right on my corner. Everyone needs tools closeby, I believe.

[Fumesucker]

5. Thanks..

There are some pretty nice tricycles these days too..





http://www.lightfootcycles.com/trikes.php

[Delphinus]

10. I would love one of these,

but the costs are way out of my ability to afford. The Courier was $3,300.

[Fumesucker]

11. I didn't look at the prices of those particular bikes...

Didn't realize they were so expensive..

But "roll your own" is possible if you are handy with tools..

And the Schwinn Meridian trike is not too outrageous and could be modified easily..



http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-Meridian-Adult-26-Inch-3-Wheel/dp/B001AYKIX4

I paid $300 for my BikeE recumbent..

[Delphinus]

12. Hey, thanks!

These are some great things to investigate!

[The2ndWheel]

6. It seems like people have very little say when it comes to how

the communities that we live in are set up.

And I know, I've got a bike too. Not that a little inefficiency every now and then is a bad thing.

[Fumesucker]

7. Most of us are pretty much stuck with what is existing..

Local politics here is rather ugly, I suspect that is true a lot of other places too.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Yeah, shame nobody can sail west and hit land these days

Start a new world. Then again, even that trip was funded by an empire looking to expand its power. Then that new world became an expanding empire itself.

Not only do we not fight what is existing, even if it doesn't serve us, but then we try and bring more people into what is existing in order to make it cheaper to maintain, because we're stuck with it.

It's easier to do it that way though, that's why what exists is so successful at continuing to exist. Who has the energy to fight what exists? I know I'm tired from walking the combined 6 miles to and from work everyday(which is my little jab at the system, but at the same time I'm still working for it), and I get up a little early just so I can relax for a few hours before going to work, and I'm tired by 9pm...who has the energy for it all?

[Fumesucker]

9. A six mile walk is about two hours..

Six miles on a bicycle is more like forty minutes..

I can do twenty miles on my recumbent in right around two hours and not be tired at the end, I'm very close to sixty years old and not in the greatest shape.

[CrispyQ]

3. Fascinating article.

Thanks for posting.