The End of Walking

Actually, i've seen that in lots of places. What the hell?

Near my work, for many years, there's been a large complex of buildings for tech workers. A block away across a busy two-lane intersection is a strip mall full of restaurants, mechanics, cleaners, etc. There was no sidewalk of any kind and certainly no pedestrian crossing lights. This year, construction finally started on pedestrian crossing. But i've made the mad dash across four two-lane sections of grass and curbs several times. I still don't get what the hell the city planners were thinking.

In any commercial setting you don't have dangerous machinery and humans mixing. It would not make sense. So it also makes sense to have absolute barriers in public between the two.

The concept people prefer to walk only holds when that person wants to walk in place X and doesn't want 'other' humans to at that 'time and place' to be driving. Just like we all hate traffic jams, which really means we wish everyone else was not on the road.

Driving gives us unbelievable freedoms and amazing access to things otherwise impossible.

There is no conspiracy, it's just some places are not as well designed as others to get the two to work together, yet.