My Other Car Is My Feet

After living the urban lifestyle for five years, one of the things I find most amazing about suburbanites is their assumption that you must get in your car anytime you want to go anywhere. It's as if suburban America has collectively forgotten that their legs, in fact, are a mode of transportation. But not only that, walking doesn't cost a thing and it's a zero-emissions form of transportation!

Since returning to Columbia, I have found that in many ways I can maintain my walking lifestyle. The grocery store is just a mile away from my house, I walk to it once a week. Although most folks get in their cars and drive from one end of shopping centers to the other when running multiple errands, I walk across the parking lots. It's not a beautiful stroll, but it's an environmentally-conscious action. Plus, when I am way out beyond the cars in some of those lots, I feel quite peaceful even in that sea of concrete and steel.

I have actually pledged to myself that anytime I need to go somewhere that is less than a mile and a half away, I will walk. If I can't walk for some reason, I won't go until I can wrap the errand into another excursion or carpool with a family member who also needs to go there. Even when it's cold, walking isn't hard. A mile and a half is only a 20 minute walk. That's the daily minimum recommended by doctors for aerobic exercise. Make it round trip, and I'm well on my way to achieving a real work-out.

Cars pollute most in the first 5 miles of driving. Therefore, reducing the number of short trips I take is one of the most important goals I have. I feel, overall, that I have been quite successful so far. However, there is one area in Columbia where walking is quite impossible. Read on for the account I have sent to my local government officials...

For the past two weeks, I have been working in the Lee DeForest Drive commercial development in the Columbia Gateway Corporate park. Everyday I try to take a walk at lunch, and sometimes after work I like to go to the nearby Snowden Square shopping center to take care of a couple errands. However, after a rain this walk is nearly impossible. Why? No, not because of floods.

Because of mud.

The development is quite new and, reasonably so, the ground is soft. Therefore, everything is squishy after a rain. In most new developments, this isn't a problem because people walk on the sidewalk. However, there are no sidewalks on the main road in the corporate park, Robert Fulton Drive. Nor is there a sidewalk leading from Robert Fulton up to Commerce Center Drive in the Snowden Square shopping center.

I find this reality astounding for a few of reasons. First, there is a very high concentration of professionals in the Snowden Square area during the day. Wouldn't it make sense to entice those professionals to take a walk to the shopping center and enjoy a meal at one of the several restaurants there?

Second, there is a large housing development on a street called Solar Walk across the road from Snowden Square. People in the town-homes there are mere steps from the shopping center and movie theater. There is a sidewalk that leads from their homes to Robert Fulton Drive. But once they arrive at that intersection, the pavement stops. Why not encourage these people to walk to the movie theater by installing a sidewalk on Commerce Center Drive?

Finally, Lifetime Fitness, which is located in the same development where I work, is the gym of choice for many of the people working in the Lee DeForest development and other parts of Columbia Gateway. However, the parking lot is a nightmare after 5:00pm. I see many people pull out of their parking spots at their office building only to drive across the Lee DeForest development and re-park at the gym. The parking lot fills up quickly, and then folks park along the sides of curvy Lee DeForest Drive, limiting visibility for drivers. Wouldn't Lifetime Fitness, its members, and the folks in that development all benefit from a sidewalk which encourages people to walk to their fitness center? Wouldn't walking make logical sense for people who want to, I don't know, increase their fitness?

It is Columbia's moral responsibility to encourage environmentally-conscious behavior in its residents, professionals, and guests. One of the pillars upon which this town was built was the idea of a walkable community -- a place in which you could walk from your home to the store, from work to the park. If I (a dedicated walker and friend of the environment) can't even comfortably walk the mile from my office to a nearby restaurant, how can anyone expect less pro-active Columbians to take a "step" toward environmentally sustainable action?

I implore you to install a sidewalk or walking path along Lee DeForest Drive, Commerce Center Drive, and especially along Robert Fulton Drive. Encourage walking. Encourage safety. Encourage environmental protection.