There are approximately 4 bakeries within an average of a 2-minute walk from my apartment building. This morning, as everyone in my family bustled to prepare for the day, my husband asked me if I could pop out to the bakery for coffee and various breakfast goodies. He usually runs this errand, but I was up earlier and ready before everyone today.
As I walked to the bakery that is currently our favorite (it has shifted over time), I thought about how when we first moved to this urban quarter, my husband almost exclusively moved around via car.
As months progressed, I witnessed him gradually getting to know the immediate neighbourhood on foot. Over time, it was clear that he even began to take small pleasures in activities like a brief morning walk to our favorite bakery of the moment.
His car-dependent grocery trips to the big grocery store at the mall were largely replaced by on-foot grocery shopping when a medium-sized grocery store opened a few blocks from our home. When I asked him about this change, he noted that it was a ‘no-brainer’ as the new grocery store was so close and walkable.
While I’m stimulated and drawn by the buzz, atmosphere, and vitality of a truly vibrant walkable lifestyle in a busy, dynamic urban quarter, for a lot of people, it is (understandably) primarily and plainly about choice and efficiency.
For me, this is what makes studying urbanism so interesting- the incredible diversity of perspectives, different needs, as well as ways of approaching and inhabiting space, as well as learning what will help ease people’s decisions to more frequently choose the walkable way.
-Annika
Do you have ability to live an urban walkable lifestyle? If not, what do you think you would value most about it?
Good morning from Warsaw.