Yay pools! I'd like to find somewhere to try out aquatics classes (aerobics and the like) to see if that's easier on my knee and ankle. But it's not like that's something you just "squeeze" into a schedule, you know? Have to change clothes twice, shower twice, etc.
Whether I walked or rode (later drove) to school depended on which school I was going to, etc. In elementary, I didn't walk to/from school until they opened an elementary school by my house. Prior to that, the school I was going to was 3.5 miles away, past several HUGE streets and a "highway." In Junior high, I had a violin to haul around, as well as my bookbag, so even though the school was only about a mile and a half away, it was on the way to work for my dad, so he'd drop me off then I'd go walking around after school with a friend, wait for Mom to pick us up, or walk home. High school? Forget it. My high school was about 5 miles from home.
Even within Texas you get different attitudes about walking. My university has the 2nd largest contiguous campus in the country, so we were regularly used to walking a half mile or more between classes, and at least that far to/from parking. When we went to UT-Austin for a conference, though, our hosts wanted to wait for the bus to go the whole 4/10 of a mile from the corner we were waiting on to the Capitol building. Their campus is relatively small, so to them this seemed like a long way to walk, I guess? We didn't see the point in waiting for the bus when we could walk just as fast.
But yeah, sprawl and also weather contribute a lot to desiring to walk or not. In my parents' neighborhood, for example, the nearest grocery store is 2 miles away, and it's a bad one. Reasonable for biking, less so for walking, and in the summer? Forget it. Give me my car and portable air-conditioning.
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Date: 2009-02-06 04:19 pm (UTC)Whether I walked or rode (later drove) to school depended on which school I was going to, etc. In elementary, I didn't walk to/from school until they opened an elementary school by my house. Prior to that, the school I was going to was 3.5 miles away, past several HUGE streets and a "highway." In Junior high, I had a violin to haul around, as well as my bookbag, so even though the school was only about a mile and a half away, it was on the way to work for my dad, so he'd drop me off then I'd go walking around after school with a friend, wait for Mom to pick us up, or walk home. High school? Forget it. My high school was about 5 miles from home.
Even within Texas you get different attitudes about walking. My university has the 2nd largest contiguous campus in the country, so we were regularly used to walking a half mile or more between classes, and at least that far to/from parking. When we went to UT-Austin for a conference, though, our hosts wanted to wait for the bus to go the whole 4/10 of a mile from the corner we were waiting on to the Capitol building. Their campus is relatively small, so to them this seemed like a long way to walk, I guess? We didn't see the point in waiting for the bus when we could walk just as fast.
But yeah, sprawl and also weather contribute a lot to desiring to walk or not. In my parents' neighborhood, for example, the nearest grocery store is 2 miles away, and it's a bad one. Reasonable for biking, less so for walking, and in the summer? Forget it. Give me my car and portable air-conditioning.