I live at 93rd\u00a0St and 104th\u00a0Ave; I don\u2019t own a car.\u00a0 I could, but it\u2019s better that I pay down my Visa right now. \u00a0Anyway, when I moved here last December, I asked my landlord: \u201cSo could I walk to downtown from here?\u201d\u00a0 She hesitated and replied: \u201cMaybe in the summer\u201d.\u00a0 City hall is 1 km away. In winter boots, I can walk this distance in 15 min.\u00a0 For me this is not far, for her this was a distance not to be contemplated.\u00a0 The interesting thing about being a walker is the difference in how distances are perceived by walkers vs non walkers: how far is far?\u00a0 I have come to the conclusion that \u201cfar\u201d is a function of time and discomfort.<\/p>\n
Now if I had said: \u201cCan I drive downtown from here?\u201d She would have laughed.\u00a0 In the confines of a warm car, downtown is 40 to 50 seconds away. This is the walking equivalent of a trip to the front yard from the bedroom. The same cannot be said if you look at this the other way around.\u00a0 A 15 min drive from my home will bring you anywhere within the confines of Edmonton if the traffic is light.\u00a0 Is a 15 min drive far?\u00a0 Still no, 15 min in a warm comfy car is nowhere near as far as 15 min at -25C across barren parking lots.<\/p>\n
Distance is also not a great indicator of how \u201cfar\u201d something actually is.\u00a0 For example, the Strathconna Farmers market is only 5 km south of my home.\u00a0 As a runner, I know that I can easily jog 5 km in 30 min on a track. \u00a0Unfortunately, the North Saskatchewan River valley is not a track.\u00a0 With winter boots on, this trip took me 80 mins.\u00a0 This was a very long and uncomfortable 80 mins let me tell you.\u00a0 What would the equivalent drive be?\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to tell, maybe a drive to Drayton Valley with a broken heater, no power steering and a misaligned front end? \u00a0In any event, this trip was not something I would willingly do more than once.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar\u201d, I suppose, is also a function of how much discomfort you\u2019re used to or is strictly necessary.\u00a0\u00a0 Over the course of this past winter in Edmonton, I found that 30 mins on foot at -20C was about as far as I was willing to go.\u00a0\u00a0 This meant that for the past few months my world has been bounded in the north by 109th\u00a0Ave, in the West by 109th\u00a0St and to the south and East by the river valley.\u00a0 I’ve had a pretty small and habitat these past few months. 2 km west is about as far as I could make it.\u00a0 This is not to say that I didn’t have everything I needed: I bought groceries, clothes, watched movies went to bars and restaurants.\u00a0 It was just that I had a very limited number of options.<\/p>\n
Then May arrived and I got a bike.\u00a0 Suddenly my world is exponentially bigger.\u00a0\u00a0 Things that are 10-15 km away are now within my reach.\u00a0 I can go faster, I can be outside longer. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s great!\u00a0 I feel like someone\u2019s let me off the leash after a long time inside. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For my driving friends out there, maybe now might be the time to give your feet or a bike a chance. \u00a0Things are no longer as \u201cfar\u201d as you might think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"