Changing Speedy Wheels for Speedy Heels: Walking Away From a Bad Habit

Summary: Speedy wheels change into speedy heels as the healthy habit of walking as much as possible replaces the bad habit of driving everywhere.

Walk more, drive less; "Country Road in Virginia," Monday, Nov. 12, 2007, 15:12:51, image along Wilson Road, Vernon Mills, Fauquier County, Northern Virginia, Washington metropolitan area: John McTarnaghan (jmctee), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Foot power continues to help me break a bad habit. Viewing cars as fulfilling all transportation needs is my worst health-related decision. No longer making that mistake results in a happier, healthier me.

Speedy wheels go way back with me. I recall as a child quickly graduating from tricycles to bicycles. I remember switching their recreational roles with jogs and strolls and transportation roles with family drives.

Things nevertheless become problematic with putting my driver’s license into practice. Problems go back to high school graduation’s leading into relocation to a university town in the next state. A college campus tends to be spread out, with languages and sciences forming triangular points of distances to be accessed sometimes by skateboards and oftentimes by car.

With graduation and work, all things professional and recreational generally continue to be defined by cars. This is particularly true if one is not a taxi-riding person. The constant stops and starts of a bus make me nauseous. Subways seem claustrophobic. Trains never surface where I need them to be.

As an adult, I do not have memories of any reliance upon walking as alternative transportation. Foot power in my life history traditionally gets relegated to recreational purposes with family and friends, in the evenings and on weekends. It nevertheless represents a transportation option with pre-2015 gas price climbing to $3.00-plus a gallon.

Speedy wheels still claim cherished niches in my life even though car power no longer holds monopoly status in getting me to and from life’s roadside attractions. I still make the 30- to 45-minute drive to the main library. I now park on unrestricted neighborhood streets with unrestricted parking. From the library, I switch from driving 5 minutes to walking 15 minutes to view the downtown art museum’s latest displays and permanent exhibitions and to visit the French bakery.

Springtime and summertime usually conjure up two contradictory images of motorized impacts on health and lifestyle. Speedy wheels do not make me fat or flabby even though car power -- without the workouts intrinsic to speedy heels -- builds no muscles or stamina for gardens and lawns. Foot power contrastingly translates into endurance in health and savings in automobile gas, mileage and repairs.

To and from points A and B, I factor a stop at the park four miles from home. I get out and walk a mile. Speedy heels indeed have their place as health boosters, recreational aids and transportation choices in every healthy lifestyle.

A variety of landscapes may be encountered during a walk in a park; footbridge, Golden Gate Park, northwestern edge of San Francisco, Northern California; Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011: John Martinez Pavliga, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Walk more, drive less; "Country Road in Virginia," Monday, Nov. 12, 2007, 15:12:51, image along Wilson Road, Vernon Mills, Fauquier County, Northern Virginia, Washington metropolitan area: John McTarnaghan (jmctee), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmctee/2001999832/

A variety of landscapes may be encountered during a walk in a park; footbridge, Golden Gate Park, northwestern edge of San Francisco, Northern California; Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011: John Martinez Pavliga, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/6291641781/