Looking down towards the Lac Leman. You can see the white lines at the top of waves being pushed along by the wind.

On the Pleasure of Walking Without Stopping at a Road Crossing.

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After watching the video below this paragraph I want to speak on the pleasure of walking without stopping at a road crossing. In modern cities you can’t walk for more than a minute or two without having to stop at a road crossing, a traffic light or other feature. The result is that a stroll or walk is filled with stops and starts.

As people move towards urbanised centres, and as more and more people live vertically, on top of each other so the need for gyms, swimming pools, indoor climbing centres and other features become essential. This is because we are designed by evolution for sports. Moving towards urban centres detracts from our ability to do sports in a natural environment.

When I lived in London (North West, Zone four, so not really London ;-)) I would walk 45 minutes each way to university and back because I hated the idea of waiting for the bus. When I went into central London I walk often walk for an hour and a half or more. With time I got to know the city very well.

The same is true of Rome. When you don’t know a city you use public transport to get you close to places and walk the rest of the way. After several days in a city you get to connect every monument or landmark from every other. Getting everywhere by foot becomes simplified and the bus and underground trains become obsolete.

If you go cycling or walking in the countryside you get to know the landscape just as well but there are fewer cars, people and obligations to stop. In the countryside you stop not because a traffic light is red or because you don’t want to run over but because you want to capture an image of the landscape. It may be a field, or flowers, or horses galloping across a field. That last one is less common.

The other drawback to urbanisation is that flying drones, planes, helicopters and other fun devices is no longer possible. To fly a drone or other flying object you need to be far from people, far from power lines, from animals that could be scared and away from flight plans. With all of those restrictions, the freedom to fly a drone is negated.

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@kateejamieson_ daily walk with the alps in the background.

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