Walk This Way

This afternoon Valarie and I walked from our apartment near Southeast 12th & Hawthorne across the river to downtown Portland, about a thirty-minute walk, and then continued on to the Pearl District, another quarter-hour or so. Nothing special was on the agenda, although we wound up stopping for clothes shopping, tea and scones (for Valarie), browsing a sale on Scandinavian furniture, espresso (for me), books, pizza (for me again) and CDs in addition to perusing a few art galleries. But the best part was just the walking itself. Weather was in the low to mid-70s with sunshine and passing white clouds. While explicitly not a summer weather person, I must say it was beautiful out today.

Much as I love my car, it was soothing to be without for a day. I love that we live in a neighborhood and a city where it’s possible to enjoy a variety of activities as pedestrians. Last night two friends of ours, Scott and Andrea, got married at the Riverplace Hotel, by the marina near downtown and just across the Hawthorne Bridge from us. We were able to take a five-minute bus ride there and walk back, without any of the hassles that would have come with parking. Plus the night breeze was lovely, especially after a few glasses of wine.

This walking versus driving issue has been on my mind because I’ve been driving out to Tualatin four days a week for the last couple weeks while working on a temporary web-copyrighting gig. It’s made me realize how spoiled usually working at home. Even though I’m going against the direction of most commuter traffic on the way to Tualatin, and I avoid rush hour by working just 11-4, the driving back and forth has me stressed out. There’s constantly at least some kind of slowing on the freeway, not always stop and go but never 55+ all the way. And besides this issue of which speed I’m able to go, which is obsession enough, I can’t stop myself from lots of lane changing. If I’m in a lane that slows down to a lesser pace than I prefer, and suddenly I see cars in another lane going faster, it feels impossible not to jump over to that one. But of course it’s an endless cycle, a pointless exercise. I just wish knowing that intellectually was enough to prevent me from weaving—but it isn’t. When you add couple this with the annoyance I get when people either forget or refuse to use their turn signals, it’s enough to get the stress level climbing a bit, however needlessly.

Years ago as a kid I used to hate walking, and longed to be able to drive. And even today, when I can be out on the open road, driving is still fun. But in most any large and reasonably dense city, I’m far more content to walk whenever possible. It’s not that I can’t drive in traffic. I feel completely confident negotiating packed streets and highways. It just, the price is high psychologically. So I really can’t fathom living in a place where an alternative to driving wasn’t possible.

Comments

[david]

I was talking with Irene in Oakland about how otherwise reasonable people went crazy when they got behind the wheel of their cars. A ten or fifteen second delay is often intolerable!