Walking: The More You Know

As I walk across campus (which I assure you is a lot of walking), I have realized that in a town where most everyone drives everywhere they need to go, people are forgetting how to walk. That sounds weird, because I'm pretty sure everyone has the muscle memory down of using their legs to get them from place to place, it's the skill that has disappeared. I am trying to make this as far away from a rant as possible, but we'll see. I promise I'm speaking from witnessing, nothing horrible has happened to me, so all of this is a what if type scenario. 

If you know how to drive (successfully) then you should be able to interact with other walkers perfectly fine. If you walk fast, you can gauge how fast other people are walking and pass them with ease, the less awkward the better and lets admit, ghosting someone in front of you is awkward for everyone. 

Another example of driving-walking skills, you wouldn't change lanes or back up without looking in your mirrors or behind you first to make sure that you don't hit someone, right? Same goes for walking, just because the act of running into someone does not come with the same legal implications as rear ending someone or cutting them off, you can still check behind you before putting all of your momentum into travelling in a new and unexpected direction with the chance that the person behind you is close and will suffer from a new surrounding i.e. the ground. 

All of this can also be applied to biking, scooting, and skate/long boarding. I have actually witnessed a head on skate board collision, boards, and people went flying in the middle of a crowded intersection of walk ways, I was inches away from getting knocked over, but unlike driving, as a witness I could just continue on my way. 

Lets not forget that texting and driving, which is illegal here in AZ is another principle to be applied to walking. I'm sure everyone has see those videos of people texting and walking and falling in to things like fountains, but here' an example:

Yeah, not a good situation at all. So if you are going to text, or use your phone in any way that requires your eyes focus, maybe you should "pull over" and stand in the shade where reading is way easier anyway, and protect yourself and others from your distracted state.

Maybe this sounds really reasonable to you, good, you're already there and are a good example to others. If not, try it out, maybe nothing happens, maybe you save yourself from a tragic head on collision (and I mean head literally, in the act of texting). All I know is that "Safe Walking" can reduce walk way awkardness by 45%...  I made that up, but there needs to be some sort of statistic for impact. 

Walking, the more you know *cue chime sound from those commercials*

And to wrap all of this up, here is a picture of me on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (see what I did there? (Notice the the emptiness of the walk, no one to inconvenience)