Walk It Off
June 16, 2020 9:50 PM   Subscribe

 
I thought nobody walks in LA?
posted by Catblack at 9:55 PM on June 16, 2020 [7 favorites]


Google says walking is about 3 miles per hour. Cycling is about 10 miles per hour. (leisurely pace I'm pretty sure)

How far are you going and how much time do you have and can you walk / cycle for that long without stopping?

Nobody walks in LA, unless they have all day because everything is so far away.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:02 PM on June 16, 2020


(My quarterly reminder to not be dumb or classist about L.A.)
posted by mykescipark at 11:33 PM on June 16, 2020 [8 favorites]


It is and isn't possible to walk in LA.

You can pick a neighborhood where it's possible to walk for trips to the store or groceries or an evening out. I've lived in that kind of neighborhood for most of the last 7 years.

You can pick a neighborhood where it's possible to walk to work, or have a short transport-assisted commute. This is a little harder depending on the job, but it's possible.

But it isn't hard to get into a situation where one of those two isn't easy. And unless you're lucky, your acquaintances are going to be spread across town, along with some of your favorite activities.

Then again, now that most things are cancelled and social distancing is a thing, I guess we don't do those things as much so it's easier to walk.
posted by wildblueyonder at 11:34 PM on June 16, 2020 [7 favorites]


Before this weekend's gruesome toe injury (don't ask), Mrs. Ghidorah and I had been doing a lot of walking. Obviously the way people get around in Japan is different than the States, but we'd pretty much optimized everything in terms of time spent on commuting, so we both have bikes and parking spaces for them at the train station, and in the past, going out to the store from home was usually a bike ride. Now, with so much more time to kill, as well as a lot less movement in the day because of working at home, we started turning shopping trips into chances to get out and stretch our legs. What's usually a five minute bike ride can easily become a 45 minute meander if you do it right.

The added bonus is that, since the goal isn't to get from point A to point B in the shortest time, we've explored more and seen more of the area we live in than at any point in the eleven years we've lived here. Some day, I'll go back to having to get on a train to go to school, and that will mean I'll be dashing along on my bike because walking would mean less time to sleep, but for now (at least, once the toe heals), walking has been pretty damn great.

Also, Pokemon Go.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:56 AM on June 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


I am a much, much, much happier person than I was at about this time last year - and part of that is due to the fact that last year I was commuting one hour via subway and bus to get to work, and another hour via subway and bus to get home; and today my commute is a fifteen-minute walk each way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:02 AM on June 17, 2020 [5 favorites]


These articles are less about walking for utility and errand running and more about the therapeutic benefits of going for a stroll.

I discovered the pleasures of walking when I was in my 20s. A friend lived half a mile away and he once dropped by my apartment randomly and asked if I'd be interested in going for a walk. And we just wandered as we chatted, shared stories and observed different aspects of our city. We could have had a similar social experience in one of our living rooms, but the added stimulation of being outside and in the city made for a liveliness that you couldn't just get at home or in a bar or cafe.

My wife and I bonded over a similar appreciation for walking and we'll usually try to get a nice 6 mile ramble in on our weekends. We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood that's linked to a number of parks that are bordered by other neighborhoods and cultural institutions, so sometimes we walk to a museum or a hilltop view or a restaurant or a shop but often we just walk to check out a new part of our neighborhood that we havent seen before and just want to see what it's like. When open houses were a thing, we'd regularly drop into them just to satisfy a curiosity over what other people's homes look like. We think house flipping tv is toxic and wretched, but we love walking around and dropping into open houses.

The destination isn't important. The walk is the thing.

As Grace Liu points out, the aimlessness lends itself to having your brain expand to think about ideas that you may not usually be able to when you're more occupied with a purpose driven activity. Being out to process through an errand checklist or going on a run where you're preoccupied with your time or your body's exertion fills your mind with focus, whereas going for a walk empties your mind to the point where it's more open to wander as your feet do. That's something we all can benefit from in these semi quarantined times.
posted by bl1nk at 4:17 AM on June 17, 2020 [17 favorites]


Isn't walking in LA the sort of thing that automatically draws police attention?
posted by acb at 4:24 AM on June 17, 2020


The mobility maps that have been released all show large increases in park visits....like 100+%.

Weirdly the other mobility metrics didn't drop as much as I expected they would and other than public transit they are disturbingly close to returning to normal.

My local outdooring facebook group has the long time members and hardcore outdoor advocates pretty much saying "Don't go, too crowded, not safe".
posted by srboisvert at 5:11 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


I’ve been a daily walker (50 minutes or so) since we got a dog in 2008 (a practice I continued after she died last July), but I’ve had to curtail that since the shutdown as my formerly mostly quiet and serene routes have been overrun with walkers. Too many, too many not practicing sensible distancing.
posted by notyou at 5:31 AM on June 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


Rediscovering (or discovering!) the love of walking reminds me of Rebecca Solnit's book Wanderlust.
posted by knownassociate at 5:53 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]



I’ve been a daily walker (50 minutes or so) since we got a dog in 2008 (a practice I continued after she died last July), but I’ve had to curtail that since the shutdown as my formerly mostly quiet and serene routes have been overrun with walkers. Too many, too many not practicing sensible distancing.


Same here except the volume isn't so high that I've had to stop

It actually kind of creeped me out when summer started. I live in Texas and during the winter and early spring I walk around midday. Before the pandemic often I would walk to get coffee with a dog. In late spring and summer I walk at night, the hotter it is, the later I walk. It might be 95 during the day right now but ~80 at 10pm. Normally, I won't see a single person

But in these pandemic days at 10pm on a completely dark hike and bike trail I'll come across individuals, families, and even like groups of giggling teenagers. It was so unexpected to see anyone that I actually kind of paniced the first time I came across a small group of teenagers on a trail in the dark.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:53 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


Walking has been a major part of my life since I was a teen, when on the weekends I'd go into the nearby city to meander around and explore different neighborhoods, walking the few sidewalk free miles back home from school and hiking the local state parks. It's drifted in importance a bit depending on where I lived, living in the most anti-walking city in the US did put a hamper on my explorations some (where a casino won a 'most pedestrian friendly business' award by having 1) no sidewalks and 2) a 6 lane road splitting their property with no safe way to get to the other side without driving).

Since moving to the walking paradise of New York, meandering around the city and hiking has become my wife and I's main 'hobbies.' We've explored all five boroughs on foot, and while we often feel like we 'know' the city; it often proves us wrong by our random discovery of new places we somehow overlooked.

With the pandemic, our walks and hikes have definitely been given a different feel and weight. At the peak here, we went for a short walk in our neighborhood one cold evening and it really made it clear to us then just how dangerous Covid-19 really is. There was almost no traffic on the road or people on the streets, an eery quietness that was only punctuated by the sounds of the wailing sirens of the ambulances racing from place to place. Literally every other street was lit with the flashing lights of the ambulances picking up our neighbors who had succumbed to the virus. It was truly an unforgettable, surreal and terrifying experience.

The over utilization of the parks (both in and out of the city) has been frustrating in many ways. For one, it would be so much better if more people just went out for random walks (or biking) around their neighborhoods, helping to keep the density down significantly. The local traffic is still really low, making it easier to get out on the street to avoid others. On the other hand, the lack of people does make our own walks that much more quieter and safer...

We've switched to avoiding the major parks; popular hiking trails have been completely overrun and it is often difficult to keep a safe distance on the tight paths (that being said, masks are being worn by almost everyone on the quieter ones we've done). The local state policies have been really at cross odds, for example, Harriman State Park closed half of the roads, forcing everyone to use the same limited number of parking lots and trailheads. There is just so many things that could be done better.
posted by rambling wanderlust at 6:06 AM on June 17, 2020 [7 favorites]


These articles are less about walking for utility and errand running and more about the therapeutic benefits of going for a stroll.

Ah, but the beauty of it is that these can be one and the same!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:08 AM on June 17, 2020 [6 favorites]


I prefer biking, it minimizes the time spent near anyone and discourages the gregarious from attempting to talk to me.

Oh, and it's also good during a pandemic.
posted by tommasz at 7:23 AM on June 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


Oh, and it's also good during a pandemic.

Unless you find yourself in another cyclist's slipstream. Travelling at speed extends the length of one's ronacloud.
posted by acb at 7:29 AM on June 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've been enjoying walking during zoom meetings. So many meetings don't need me to be at a computer, and I can get away with having video and mic off much of the time. Usually I can find at least one meeting per day where I'm not going to get a word in edgewise anyway, and walking while listening at least makes it feel like not a complete waste of time.
posted by lollusc at 7:53 AM on June 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


Whoa I was just walking yesterday!
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:02 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


I (used to) travel a lot for work, and Los Angeles is (was) a frequent destination. As an Orthodox Jew, on Saturdays when I can go to synagogue, I walk. But since my company picks the hotel, sometimes that can mean 1-3 miles (or more, but then I won't go). I've done this in cities on four continents now, and the only place it feels weird is in L.A. Maybe some of it is because I'm dressed up (and often in heels), but cars would slow down as they passed. People would watch me at stoplights. Sometimes I could go the whole way and not see a single other person on foot.

And then I'd find myself singing the Missing Persons song in my head for the rest of the walk.

And I still remember the first few times I went from NYC to L.A. So many people made sure to tell me how seriously they take jaywalking there.
posted by Mchelly at 10:03 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


Weirdly the longest walk I ever went on in the LA area was to a Missing Persons concert.

When I got there, I had some random stuff with me, like water and sunscreen, in a CVS bag. They wouldn't let me take the bag in the venue and had no place to check it. They were confused I had walked there because, well...
posted by smelendez at 10:09 AM on June 17, 2020 [5 favorites]


I wound up finding new walking routes, since the big park near me was and is pretty consistently full of people who have not heard the news about wearing masks. I am delighted -- I live at the foot of a hill that has to be one of the richest neighborhoods in the city. Aside from exhausted class-based rage, it has been nice to have a place to walk among beautiful houses and trees, with a view of the water and the mountains. It's getting more crowded, but there's still enough room to stay six foot away, and I feel like I've discovered a lot of amazing little gems.

My favorite walking story is from when I flew into Stornaway in the Outer Hebrides for a job interview. Being from large cities, I obviously assumed that even a small airport was well outside of town, and had researched the (very) occasional shuttle bus. Which was nowhere to be found when I landed, I am honestly not actually certain it exists. The lady at the information desk tactfully pointed out that I could just walk into town, and so I did. It was a beautiful wander past some open fields and then through residential areas to where I was staying; couldn't have been more than a mile. I still quite love that 'just walk home from the airport' was a valid option.

(Man. I'm still sad they couldn't hire me because of visa issues, and this just piles one more on top of it. A place where you can walk from the airport was made for me!)
posted by kalimac at 10:49 AM on June 17, 2020 [5 favorites]


I've unfortunately been walking a lot less. My office plaza has a decent plaza area and a small lake to wander around, and a so-called "indoor mall" which is good for a few laps during a break when the weather is less accommodating.

My home neighborhood is hilly, and too much of an unpleasant workout to get very far at all. And it's been too damn hot and humid outside to enjoy being out there for more than about three seconds anyway.
posted by Foosnark at 11:13 AM on June 17, 2020


Anything the NYTimes writes about Los Angeles can just be dismissed out of hand.

Isn't walking in LA the sort of thing that automatically draws police attention?

No.
posted by sideshow at 11:49 AM on June 17, 2020 [4 favorites]


I'm walking 4 miles (6.44 km) about 4 or 5 times a week, while listening to audiobooks or podcasts.
posted by COD at 2:52 PM on June 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


I live in Manhattan and walk a ton anyway, but since the lockdown started, I've basically been walking a marathon each Friday...
posted by AJaffe at 2:56 PM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


I live in Philly and for years have been walking for an hour or two every day just to get out of the house. I used to walk into Center City or over to the library or the grocery store, just to have a destination, but now I do it without a destination. Since the first day of lockdown, I've also been taking a photo of something (flower, electric meter, sign in window) that shows that human beings are somewhere, just not right here. I'm going to finish up on the summer solstice and make myself a photo book I will call Pandemic Spring and look at sometimes to remind myself that I was there.
posted by Peach at 5:10 PM on June 17, 2020 [5 favorites]


I do a lot of walking when the weather is clement (I try for 4 miles a day, sometimes 8), and it's considered...bizarre? I live in a village where there's a fair amount of "everybody knows everybody else's business," so people come up to me randomly to comment on it.

However, I'm originally from a suburb in Los Angeles, where as a kid I could and did do a lot of walking. In retrospect, there weren't a lot of places to walk to, but you could still rack up a few miles.

A few years ago, I taught Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and one of the really striking things about the book if you're from California is that just about all access to private transportation that isn't a bicycle has disappeared. At one point, I threw up a California freeway map on the projection screen to show why the implications of that disappearance are just so radical--you suddenly have all these communities that become isolated from each other, and it takes forever to reach resources by foot.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:16 PM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]


I live in an urban center so, pre-pandemic, I could walk aimlessly from my home for hours without a plan, knowing that whenever I got tired of it I could easily catch public transit home. Now that option is sort of off the table with there being several maskless passengers on every bus I've seen.,
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:24 PM on June 17, 2020


I made it a big point to live in a place where we can walk to restaurants and schools and a library and work and lots of things. The neighborhood is very pedestrian friendly In Normal times, but I also estimate about a 350% surge in people walking by my house per day during the peak of people’s quarantine. Now it’s down to maybe 120-180% normal, which is nice because it’s easier for me to keep plenty of distance on my walks.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:50 PM on June 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


(Man. I'm still sad they couldn't hire me because of visa issues, and this just piles one more on top of it. A place where you can walk from the airport was made for me!)

One of the things that shocked me the most when I moved to San Diego was being able to walk to the airport. Not that many people did it; the streets weren't set up to make the trip especially comfortable. Still it could be done in an hour from my neighborhood, which was not nearly the closest neighborhood to the airport. This did not match my image of SoCal at all.

As fun as the novelty of walking to the airport was, it strikes me now that an airport in a central location is not really a net positive for the area's walkability.
posted by aws17576 at 7:10 PM on June 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


I walk a lot anyway, but during the pandemic I've been taking long walks along the canal here in Montreal. My pedometer app says I've averaged 15.3km a day for the past 2 weeks. I work from home, so getting out of the house at the end of the day is essential, and the canal is a good place to walk while physically distancing. I always take a camera with me.
posted by oulipian at 10:57 AM on June 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


On new traffic patterns - I love the bit about how you can see the Himalayas from India now, L.A. having the cleanest air since the 80s, and this bit:

"The drop in transportation emissions in the Wuhan region alone may have prevented more than 12,000 deaths, nearly 2.5 times the mortalities attributed to Covid-19 in China by early May, researchers wrote in the Lancet."

LOVING the clean air. Keep it up with the walking, y'all! Thanks!
posted by aniola at 3:03 PM on June 19, 2020 [1 favorite]


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