Category
Walking
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Walking
Tips for Walking in the City Part 4: The Sidewalk is for Pedestrians
Wheels belong on the street
Bicyclists in San Francisco have a powerful lobby in the local government. That’s why many of the major streets in this city have dedicated bike lanes. As a good number of people rely on bicycles as their primary form of transportation here, it only makes sense that someone is[...]
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Walking
Tips for Walking in the City Part 3: “Excuse Me”
11.17.08 | Permalink | 2 CommentsTwo Little Words that Mean So Much
So if you’ve been following my tips for urban pedestrian travel so far, you’ve no doubt noticed I put a major emphasis on avoiding collisions with other people. Obviously, it’s extremely important to avoid contact with strangers when on the street, as contact leads to all sorts of issues, ranging from mild annoyance to potential rage.
There are those times, however, when collisions occur, for whatever reason. Allow me to offer you the simplest of phrases to utter on these hopefully rare[...]
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Walking
Tips for Walking in the City Part 2: Sudden Stops
Sudden Changes in Velocity Have Consequences
We’ve all done it from time to time: Walking along, we suddenly think of something that stops us in our tracks, literally. The problem, when you’re on a busy city sidewalk, is that your sudden stop may cause a major upheaval in traffic behind you.
If, perhaps, someone like me, who moves at a rather fast pace when walking, happens to be only a few feet directly behind you, there’s a good chance you’re going to get knocked over. Reason being, fast moving objects don’t exactly stop[...]
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Walking
Tips for Walking in the City Part 1: Face Forward
Somewhere along the evolutionary path, our ancestors, unlike many other creatures such as birds or most fish, developed two eyes in the front of their heads, rather than one on each side of the head. This change led to all kinds of amazing new abilities for our brains and bodies. The tradeoff is that we lost our ability to see directly behind us.
While we can’t focus with great detail on objects in our periphery, we can at least make out basic motion through shifts in color and luminosity that happen in the area surrounding almost 90 degrees in either direction. (See figure 1.) This range is enough [...]
