The Urban Side

By Ted Floyd. From Friends of the Earth's Paper "Walking Promotion" Sept 1993

A car alienates you from your surroundings. While locked up in a car, your only concern is to get from A to B in as short a time as possible. In a car you see very little except the car in front. Since you are cut off from your surroundings environment, you see no value in the outside environment.

This can breed a contempt for the outside environment, and lead to a "couldn't care less" attitude about the continued survival of the outside world.

While walking slowly, you are in touch with the world around you. You feel your surroundings seeping through your bones. Both the good and the bad affect you deeply. With this heightened sense of awareness you develop a keen interest in the good which needs to be saved and the bad which should be changed.

If more people walked more often in our city, the level of environmental awareness of the public would rise considerably. As awareness rises, public demand for a better environment would increase. Maybe if a few politicians got out of their pollution belching cars and walked, they may see the real world.

An increase in city walking would have a major effect on people's attitudes which will eventually flow onto the decision makers and result in a more pleasant and sustainable city environment.