During a recent visit with my family, I vowed never again to drive my car to work. Well, at least as little as possible.
They looked at me as if I was crazy. When I told them how much I enjoyed walking to work and nearby shops, they were speechless.
Like my parents, I commute 30 miles to work. The difference is I live in Santa Barbara and work in Ventura. I walk six minutes from my house to the bus stop,though if it was much farther, I could take the Metro bus, which stops one block from my home. I pass the gorgeous Santa Barbara courthouse, wait outside the equally impressive downtown library and then hop on the bus to Ventura. It takes 10 minutes to walk from the Ventura bus stop to the Solimar office. It is certainly not a hard walk: both cities offer fresh ocean air, temperatures that average 70 degrees year around and great architecture. .
My parents, on the other hand, live in the Woodlands, Texas, and work in Houston. They too have commuter buses, but, in a suburb like the The Woodlands, there is no public transportation. The most popular way to get to the bus stop is by car. The Woodlands does have 155 miles of hike and bike paths winding through all the different villages. But, unlike my short walk to the bus stop, it is not efficient to travel a sprawling suburb on foot. The weather is always an issue too: other than winter, it is either hot and humid or hot, humid and raining.
Houston, however, has worked hard in recent years to become a very walkable city. The city has constructed new light rail lines as an addition to the already established bus system and has cleaned up the streets and sidewalks to make downtown easier for pedestrians. My parents' walk from their bus stop is only a few blocks to their office buildings, but they don't quite enjoy their walks as much as I do. This is not because downtown Houston isn't a beautiful city, but because you break a sweat the moment you step outside. And if you have longer than a few minutes walk from your bus stop, your coworkers will avoid you all day like someone eating a can of tuna.
Admittedly, I wasn't too surprised by my parents' reactions to my vow of walking. In the suburbs it is hard to imagine traveling without a car. But for me in the city, a car is more of a hassle. A walk along the Central Coast of California is also very different than a stroll through the subtropical and humid forests of Southeast Texas. Every time I fly back to visit, I'm reminded how good Californians have it, especially those of us who live on the coast. There is no doubt that I see more and appreciate more when I walk to work rather than drive.
- Sara Smith
