Reading rankings of cities based on a particular factor is like finding out Time‘s Person of the Year anew every day. We are confused and disappointed! They don’t make any sense! Who comes up with this stuff? And with what knowledge? Yet: we are compelled to discuss them ad nauseam and eventually truly believe that they actually do mean something.
On that note, Thomas “Wheat Loaf” Wheatley reports that Atlanta is weirdly ranked 14th on the Brookings Institute’s top walkable metro areas. Possibly we “earned” this spot just below New York City and Philadelphia as a result of “built-from-scratch” lifestyle centers like Atlantic Station© (where you can indeed walk, after driving across the interstate and parking in the deck), not as a result of Atlanta’s non-existent fondness for traveling by foot. Daily schlepping as a regular pedestrian isn’t all that convenient, but promenading atop fancy new sidewalks in front of Express Men is super easy!
As Time Person of the Year 2006, I declare Atlanta a walkable city.
Previously: Atlanta doesn’t have a Drinking Problem, despite Buckhead’s best efforts
Tags: rankings, thomas wheatley, walking, pedestrians, atlantic station, time person of the year
1. I don’t like Thomas Carlyle.
2. I think Atlanta is walkable in terms of the fact that driving in this city is so god-awful that avoiding it if at all possible is always best. Justin walks home from Marta every day, which is about a mile down Dekalb Avenue. He has to sprint for this one stretch where there is no sidewalk, and hope that cars don’t hit him on Dekalb. Alternatively, he can take Marta to my work and I can drive him home. Apparently, walking the stretch down Dekalb and running the risk of getting hit by a car is vastly preferable to the commute from midtown to Lake Claire. Honestly. He says the drive is too stressful.
Atlanta drivers are mostly self-absorbed assholes who pull unbelievable stunts to avoid having to inconvenience themselves in any way (i.e., stopping in the middle of the road in the middle lane with no blinker because you realize you almost missed your turn into the Peachtree Road Starbucks, which I witnessed at 7:30 this evening.).
1. Someone liked him enough to give him his own stained glass window at St. Giles.
Walkable? sure. Walked? nuhuh. I need more info on the data derived for this study. It sounds like when the ’96 Olympic committee claimed that the average summer temperature in Atlanta was 82 degrees. Sha.
I always feel wierd and vulnerable walking in Atlanta for anything other than excercise. Perhaps if we had a better buffer between the sidewalk and the oncoming traffic, things might be different.
Yes, even in incorporated Decatur drivers assume I am a woman of the night if I am walking. In broad daylight.