[nagdu] Walking beside Highways WAS RE: Amount of walking

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Tracy,

You're right!  Walking down the side of a highway is much too dangerous.  As
is walking in the parts of town where there aren't sidewalks and traffic
lights and all those urban safety features!

My curent Interstection of Death and Destruction is, in fact, the old rural
highway turned main thoroughfare by the amount of traffic but not by
improvement.  They're starting to work on it to widen it, thank heavens.
For now, if I want to go to the park, I need to cross that stinking road
without benefit of a traffic light.  Every time I do, I feel like I'm taking
my life in my hands!  And Mitzi's, too, which really gives me fits.  One
reason I've gotten to know my little buddy and my medium buddy so well is
that they need an adult to go to the park with them, and my chances of
living to get there are better with some functioning eyeballs around.
Anyway, most people cross the street in teams.  For me, because of the
geography there, the sounds are much too confusing for me too judge traffic
safely.  I sort of wait until the cars on both sides stop, and I can't
always tell if it's cloudy and there is wind blowing.

My other alternative is to walk along the side of the highway to a stop
light....  Which puts us at risk for longer than just running across the
road screaming.  Well, I don't actually scream, but I do hoof it across
pretty fast!  /grin/

A big part of the danger is the way people drive!  Because you're on the
side of the road with no curb to the sidewalk between you and them, you're
too vulnerable for every fool behind the wheel of a car who passes you by.
People routine use the bike lane as a passing lane, and if you happen to be
in the bike lane when they do...  And yes, pedestrians have died on that
road for that very reason!  There was a hit and run just a few weeks ago
between here and the corner store.

So I have learned to be dependent on the driver of the household again, even
though it makes me crazy.  I can take the bus that stops at that
intersection to more civilized climes without having to cross the road at
all, but then to come home safely I would have to ride for an hour so that I
could get back to the stop on our side of the street.  Better than no bus at
all, but I have to want to go somewhere pretty bad to use it.  /smile/
Also, if I, say, use the bus to take a hop down to the bank, then I face the
same safety issues getting from the bus stop to the bank...  So I arrange to
go with the driver.

At least he's really great about making himself available so that I can get
my errands done, and we usually combine our errands to get them done all in
one fell swoop.  Still, I don't like feeling dependent, and I'm one of those
people who would rather do it myself than take time out of someone else's
busy life just because I'm afraid to walk a mile down the road...

And, yes, I feel very, very isolated and dependent, and I do not like it at
all.  I focus on the good things about my current living situation, which
have turned out to be many.  But I still throw fits about that stinking road
on a daily basis just to get it out of my system.  /grin/

Don't know if that helps or is what you were looking for, but that's us in
the rural life.  I would rather live in a more urban neighborhood, and I
adored the one I was in before I moved out here with Daisy and her dad.
Just couldn't afford it!

If I lived way out, where there wasn't even a bus to the Big City, I would
go insane!  With my parents aging and their health failing, I do
occasionally evaluate the possibility of moving back there, and DD is great
about bringing it up as an option, especially once he is more fully retired.
The town is small enough that I could pretty much walk everywhere, although
the paratransit is -- or was last I heard -- overbooked and not always fully
staffed.  We will not talk about the cab!  But living there with no way to
get to anywhere that civilization exists is something I just cannot face.
DD agrees that if we were to decide to do that, he would go nuts as surely
as I would.  Still, he can drive to places, so we wouldn't be stuck.

Oops.  Blathering.  That's my take on living in my current semi-rural place
just off the highway and what I learned living in the totally rural parts of
the state.

Give me the city!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 6:50 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Amount of walking

I'd like to bring this back to the original topic, if I may.  It really
interests me.  I was hoping to hear from some of the people who don't walk
miles and miles.  I think there are folks on this list who don't have the
physical ability to do it, for one.  Are there others who live in what I
call the land of the car, where walking is difficult because there aren't
any sidewalks?  I don't mind walking along a fairly quiet road with no
sidewalks, but the thought of walking along the side of a highway scares
me.  Maybe it's not as bad as I think?
If a person is one who gets a ride to work and back, does the incidental
walking get the dog enough exercise?  Like, going to lunch, running
errands, etc?  Or do all those errands have to be done with a car, too?
I know other people live in a different world than I do, and I'm curious
about it.  I live in a fairly urban, just outside the Big City.  My
husband and I chose our house partly because it is close to several bus
routes, and is within walking distance of a grocery, several restaurants,
and one of our town's business districts with some good shops.  Some
places we need have closed, because our neighbors would rather drive a few
miles to get something cheaper.  There are a lot less grocery stores in
our town than there used to be, for instance.

What with the bad weather and all, it was nearly a week that I didn't
really get out and walk much.  Even going in to the City for work, we took
a taxi because we had Echo with us, plus the stuff we needed to stay
overnight.  So Ben only walked a few blocks at a time.  But it seemed
enough to keep him happy, I suppose because of the novelty of going new
places and staying some place different.

I particularly asked TSE for a dog who would be happy to walk 2 or 3 miles
one day, and a few blocks the next.  They got it right, giving me Ben.  In
fact, I don't think he wants to walk a lot every day.  Once in a while is
interesting and fun, but he wants his rest, too.

A friend of mine is worried that the schools will be breeding lots of dogs
who don't want to work too much, the sort who could be happy with a pretty
sedentary lifestyle.  But they still seem to have a wide variety; her
young shepherd needs 3 or 4 miles a day to be happy.

One last thing I want to say in this rambly email.  My folks old place is
really nice, location-wise.  It's about 5 miles out of town, so it's real
quiet.  No neighbors on top of you all the time.  But those 5 miles are
along a highway, and even after you hit the edge of town, there are at
least a couple more miles to go before you hit the shopping district. 
When I'm there, I feel pretty isolated.  I feel like I'm totally dependent
on someone with a car to get out and go to town, or even take a walk.  Is
that the reality, or do you folks who live in the land of the car have
ways to get out on your own?

The urban life is good because it's easy to get around, but it's annoying
because the neighbors are all right on top of us. We wouldn't mind looking
into alternatives, but we have to be able to do the things we want and
need to do.
Tracy



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