Walking in Atlanta

"Americans get to pick their poison: less exercise and poor health, or walking on roads where more than 47,000 people have died in the last ten years." (From an excellent article by "Transportation for America")

This is certainly my conundrum here in Atlanta.

Chris is committed to walking the mile into work, and I understand why. We both enjoyed life without a car while we lived in Germany and tasted what a pedestrian friendly atmosphere can do for one's quality of life. We specifically chose our current home based on its proximity to work so that we could try living with just one car. However, the sidewalks in this area are either terrible or non-existent. We're just renting, so we'll move on to a place with better pedestrian options. However, someone will have to live here, so it makes me feel like proactively changing the way this city is structured! I don't often feel so fired up about community politics, but I am about this.

Just one appalling example of what Chris
walks on (er, around) on the way to work.

Another exasperating walk is the half-mile between our home and Daisy's ballet school. I tried walking with the stroller once, and I will never try again. It was practically impossible, for a variety of sidewalk reasons. For example, a fire hydrant would stick out from the middle of my path and I would need to creep onto the busy street to get around it, or the sidewalk would disappear for a block and I would need to push over a rocky dirt ditch or into the lane. It was terrible. (What makes it even worse is the clear memory I have of the full mile I could easily walk to Daisy's class in Germany.)


Luckily, it's not just me versus City of Atlanta. I quickly found PEDS, an advocacy group specifically for Atlanta. They alert me with notices of town hall meetings and senatorial decisions. I've also found wonderful resources online, like educational articles detailing Where sidewalks should go, as well as a little bit of humor.

PBS did a special report on Atlanta's pedestrian plight. It exposes the root of pedestrian problems here and also for all of American suburbia. I'm comforted knowing that many people recognize the problems, but irritated that the solutions are apparently not fundable. Please raise my taxes.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.