Walking

Yesterday, I called our insurance company about switching our apartment insurance to the new place (since we're responsible grown-ups, we have apartment insurance these days), and after being asked a bunch of building infrastructure questions I didn't know the answers to (Knob and Tube, or Romex?), the agent said she noticed that they weren't insuring "our car". Of course, we don't have a car, and have never had one.

The lady I talked to seemed to have a hard time understanding how you could get by without one, an opinion shared by about 90% of people in the U.S. It was funny when she said "So, do you just...stay around...where you live?"

The answer, is yes, sort of, but we live in the middle of the city, and most things we ever need are within walking distance, so we don't need to get in a car to do any normal activities. And I think the thing that most people don't realize is that they're not going to great, otherwise-inaccessible places in their vehicles most of the time. If I'm not driving to a big suburban shopping center or eating at a chain restaurant off the highway, isn't that a good thing? Most people don't really use their cars to (as Beebo says) "go into nature" and get away from overdeveloped cities and suburbs. They just spend a lot of time on highways and in giant parking lots. And I have a feeling that if I did have a car, I would restlessly get in it and drive extra miles to do shopping, just because I felt like I could.

Getting back to my conversation with the insurance lady--the funny thing about living in 2010 in Seattle, rather than 1992, is that people now feel compelled to congratulate you for your small carbon-footprint lifestyle, since people have gotten the message about all that ecology stuff (thanks Al!). Under the surface, however, I know they're still thinking "I would hate to have to live that way!" But the woman from St*te F*rm did talk to me (she was chatty) about her brother, who had moved to a neighborhood in town and hardly ever used his car anymore, choosing to walk and take the bus. He'd lost weight and was in better shape than before, and he loved his new routine. Which I guess indicates that more people are changing their minds.

I think the test to see if you're truly a walker is: do you walk to get places, or just as a recreational exercise? If you think of it as a valid means of transportation, then you're a real walker in my book.