Walking will not kill you

The thing I like about living in the city is that I do walk everywhere. I walk to the Giant, the corner store, the metro, the library (back when it was open), the donut shop (only to find that they are out of anything glazed) and the bike shop. Walking, besides being some form of excercise, is a good way to run into neighbors, who are also walking, and take in small changes in the neighborhood along the way.
Last week I was in Florida for my sister’s wedding, an event my half-sister (the wedding planner) took over. All I know I was just following whatever orders I was given that week. Anyway, one of the orders was to show up at a particular church my dad’s side of the family attends. When I was a kid we walked to the church. When I was a kid I walked to the church, the elementary school, the middle school, the corner store, the fried chicken place, the beauty supply store, grandma’s, basically a lot of places. So I figured I would walk from mom’s (who now attends a different church that she needs to drive to) to the church. Walking to a place I’ve walked to hundreds of times in the past just seemed to amaze everyone. *eyes rolling* It was strange and a bit annoying to confront this mindset that walking…. ‘who walks?’ mentality of my car-dependent relatives.
But I did witness one good thing in Florida, that I wish we had more of in DC, more clearly marked bike lanes. I saw a lot of bike sized (too small for cars to take over) bike lanes on a majority of the roads. I also saw a number of people using those lanes. Yes, mind you most of the cyclists were helmet-less old codgers, but they where traveling along on long lonely stretches of road in the bike lane.