The Walking Apocalypse In Modern Day America
According to Rebecca Solnit in “Walking and the Suburbanized Psyche”, walking has been devalued due to suburbs. Solnit asserts that if walking continuous to be devalued, the connection between body, world, and imagination will be lost. She also makes it clear that the suburbs have caused fragmentation, alienation from nature due to mental radius, and has made individuals feel powerless. I am in agreement with Solnit that walking as a cultural activity is fading, as well as the connection it gives between body and the world. Which partly due to suburbanization, but also modern developments, which change the scale of everyday life/
In previous years, walking was the people’s daily routine. Cars, motorcycles, bikes, scooters, buses, and trains were less advertised and used. Therefore when they walked they appreciated the moment. They appreciated everywhere they walked. There was never a dull moment of walking. “Ordinary Americans now perceive, value, and use time, space, and their own bodies in radically different ways than they did before. ” Towns went from rural, to suburban, to urban. These changes in space occurred because people started getting an education, people started getting jobs, people started to become aware that they could not live in the past. Solnit states “The history of the suburbs is the history of fragmentation”. In other words, suburbs caused the disconnection to walking. However, what made today’s society modern, were the educated individuals; who discovered and brought new advancements. Making us less comfortable to walk. Today, towns are mostly urban. There are lights everywhere, tall buildings, and people moving inside their cars. Everything is closer, than further. It is not just about laziness, or the suburbs. In “America the Great”, cars impede walking. Cars conserve our freedom of walking. Walking can become a sign of powerlessness, when you do not have a car. Solnit expresses, “These American suburbs are built with diffuseness that the unenhanced human body is inadequate to cope with. ” It is the case that in cities of Americans’ suburban areas are non-existent. For instance, in Los Angeles people do have everything at reach. It is an urban city, that residential areas have grocery, phone companies, and food underneath them. Everything is much accessible, yet they still have a car because they have to commute to their jobs. Opening a door, and stepping outside of a door to go somewhere without a car is a battle. It is not the suburbs, it is the fact that people now are more busy, and rushed. They would feel powerless if they had to go by foot, train or bus, because they take more time to arrive to their destination.
Real Americans step into their cars, where they feel safe and in control. Not just in control of the steering wheel, but of the direction of their paths. Whereas if they walk the contrary happens. In the essay titled Making Great Strides by N. J Gleason he states, “I am seen as a potential predator. One woman, noticing me behind her, whipped out her cellphone. . . another yankedher child nearer to her as I approached. Other woman have simply been starledor fearful…” Due to the changing times, people have perceived walking as a crime. We recognize walking is vital for the health of body, world, and imagination, yet we have discouraged it. We criminalize it when we consider it necessary. The perception is that while walking, predators attack you. For males, they are seen as the predators if they are walking at night. Females are frightened, and see them as suspicious. In other words, if people do not walk it is because no matter your age and gender, you will result in being a victim of walking. No one wants to walk because it makes you powerless, you cannot defend yourself from the stereotypes. A car brings comfort, you disconnect from the assumptions and perceptions of walking. “Who walks alone in the streets at night except the sad, the mad, the bad, the lost, the lonely, the sleepless, the homeless- all the city’s internal exiles. ”
The reality is that today Americans, have made advancements in their own lives and in the world. People are busy, and always rushing to get from point A to point B, that the reality is that they cannot enjoy walking. They cannot enjoy walking because their jobs are too far, because they are looked as predators, because they are scared of being a victim of crime. Those who walk are those who are thrown out of relationships, their houses, their jobs. Walking is deteriorating due to infrastructure, advancements in technology. In today's society there is no time to appreciate nature, there is rarely nature because we live in urban spaces. Some urban cities are designed so that a car is the only safe way to travel as people are creating more crime in streets.
