These boots are made for …
Lindberg Field in San Diego, CA. Photo by Stephan Hitzel.
I’ve been on a walking kick lately, ever since I went to San Diego for work-related training. I had four hours to kill after the conference, and having never been to the city before, I wanted to see some more of this sunny oasis everybody keeps raving about.
So, I decided to walk back to the airport. It was only about a 15-minute drive, so I figured I could walk it in an hour or so. I was right. And I was wrong.
You see, it’s very easy to walk to an airport. Yes, they tend to be near major freeways, which can pose a problem for pedestrians, but this can usually be overcome with a little planning. But actually walking into an airport is something else entirely. I made it to San Diego International in just over an hour. It took me another 45 minutes to get inside.
Why? Because the modern city is not built for pedestrians. It’s built for cars. You know, those gas-guzzling, ozone-depleting, road-rage-inducing horseless carriages we all love to love and love to hate. In fact, the only reason I actually made it inside in under an hour is because a kindly shuttle driver took pity on me and let me inside his motorized machine.
I know we live in the age of vehicular transport, but we also live in a society teetering on the brink of collapse. Is it not high time we started shifting away from this system, and moved toward a more sustainable future?
Walkable communities. Bikes. Real public transportation. High-speed rail. With Hubbert’s Peak looming large, can we truly afford to maintain a system that will be obsolete by mid-century? Think of all the space taken up by roads in our cities. We could have parks and piazzas. We could have homes and hospitals.
Or, we could have smog. We could have traffic. We could have fender-benders. Oh wait, I mean we do have all those things.
I know it’s asking too much, too soon. But there are encouraging signs that some cities are moving in this direction. Whole neighborhoods have been declared auto-free zones. Cities are extending bike lanes. Some are experimenting with denser, greener urban planning to give cities a neighborhood feel, and reduce the need for long commutes.
I’d like to see more of this. Then maybe I’d see a park surrounding the airport and not a parking lot. Then maybe there’d be a bullet train heading right into the airport, or better yet, right back home to San Francisco. Maybe.
Or maybe we’ll see oil wars, gas shortages, riots, food shortages, and Thunderdome. Think about that the next time you walk … to your car.
