Locally Reliant Living for Challenging Times
City Councilor Scott Walker of Port Townsend, Washington is working to build a walkable, bikeable community where the car is not essential. As a result, the town has designated many undeveloped streets and “connectors” as non-motorized routes. He says, “Build safe, convenient facilities for walking and biking, and they sprout people.” Watch Janaia test ride Scott’s electric bike, which “flattens the town” as if there were no hills.
[…] with show-and-tell, but I got the thrill of riding Scott Walker’s converted e-bike in “Making Way for Bikes” (#88). Get a tour of Otmar Ebenhoech’s electric vehicle conversion in “Return of the […]
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Laughing. Goodness, did Janaia have fun. I LOVE hills–especially going up hills! However, I realize that these are not feasible for everyone and appreciate that people such as Scott are looking for ways to make possible bike transportation for virtually anyone. Remarkable to me that, even in a small progressive community like Port Townsend, the implementation of non-auto infrastructure was still met with…marked resistance, slow receptivity? “What the car wants?” Amused to acknowledge that cars do not have a conscious will. It is up to people to decide what is of more value in life. I wonder if we humans have come to perceive that we are entitled to have it all? An outcome of having so much at our behest in latter decades? Smiling about the mention of “woonerf.” In envisioning the latter, one can imagine that being in an automobile would, indeed, be an inefficient and insulating experience. Thank you both for the reminder about pedestrian/bicycle-rider safety. I have spent far more years traveling by these modes than by car. It is continually sobering to observe the frequent disregard or lack of awareness due largely to most of us being more accustomed to driving. And certainly, when we walk or cycle, it behooves us to offer similar consideration to drivers.