Walking a Little More, Driving a Little Less

I'm excited that this summer my son will be participating in YMCA programs based at the Armory downtown. Not only does the schedule look like a lot of fun, but the location is ideal: he and I can walk the six blocks downtown together, as the Armory is right on my way to work. During the school year I often feel I need to have the car for convenience in picking him up from his after-school program at the end of my workday, since it is a little too far to walk unless I leave work earlier than would be ideal, but this arrangement frees me up delightfully. I'm far too sedentary, and this will be a nice restructuring of my daily routine. I bought some springy but work-suitable shoes from the Clark's store-wide sale at MOA last weekend that will let me avoid having to change shoes at the office. With the current parking crunch downtown due to the Water Street parking lot construction, I'll also feel good about removing one vehicle from the street more days than not. And I'll save some money on gas (the shoes will almost certainly pay for themselves by the end of the summer, and I needed some new shoes anyway). It's a good situation all around.

Walking More... But Not As Much As I Should

There's a good conversation going on at Locally Grown about one person's vision for Northfield, and right now the comments are focusing on biking and walking: the need (or not) for additional safe paths, whether to design for how people typically behave as opposed to encouraging different behaviors (more biking, for example), and so on.

In my blog description, you'll see a reference to trying to walk more and drive less. I'm finding this goal hard to achieve. I live less than nine blocks from where I work, but I drive there almost every day. Why? It mostly comes down to kids, time, and weather.

Almost every day I know I am going to have to pick up one or more of my kids from somewhere or drive them somewhere. (Yep, some changes could be made there, but I work full-time and so I appreciate the one-on-one time with the kids. Drawing that balance will be the subject of another post, perhaps.) And almost every day I'm short on time, perhaps trying to get in a few last minutes on a task, and trying to get from place A to place B as quickly as possible; walking seems, at those moments, just to take too long. And the weather? Well, in Minnesota that speaks for itself. Arrive hot and sweaty or arrive half frozen seem to be the choices for about 2/3 of the year.

But at least I'm trying to ask myself most days, "Can I walk instead of driving on this trip?" And occasionally the answer is yes, particularly on the weekends. Just being more conscious of the question is helping, at least a little. I'll continue to try to improve my record.