‘Let’s walk to the market, Mom.’
Hearing my daughter say these words recently in our new city of residence was just such a quietly special moment for me.
If you follow my content via my personal profiles or channels of Pedestrian Space, you might know that I’m a walkability researcher and also deeply value a walkable lifestyle in my own daily life.
That doesn’t mean I’ve always had that lifestyle. In fact, my life, viewed through this mobility lens, is a checkerboard of dozens of moves and chapters of varying degrees of car dependence and ability to have a fully walkable lifestyle.
When I learned that there is a tram stop in front of the house we were moving to, and not only a tram stop but also for a line that would be practical for places we would need to go on a daily and weekly basis, I knew a real pivot was in store.
Being able to immerse in a walkable daily lifestyle fulfills a set of deep, intersecting values for me, including that of being able to integrate a lot of physical movement into my daily routes and the actual joy of being able to enjoy a neighborhood on foot for both practical purposes and leisure.
Seeing my family also appreciate the lifestyle fills my cup as well. My husband still drives, but the need to do so is radically reduced, having a home office (a shift largely due to changes from the COVID-19 pandemic) and many practical needs fulfilled in the neighborhood.
‘I’m going to walk to the market now,’ he said the other day- a phrase I have never heard him say before but that now will be commonplace.
Is walkability a distant and hypothetical concept for you or a daily way of life?
-Annika