Take a Walk
You often hear people say, “Oh, Madison is such a good walking town!” I guess they mean that there aren’t steep hills within the populated areas of the city such as Cincinnati has. But if you think it’s easy to get around in Madison without wheels, then you’ve been driving everywhere you go.
I made a decision many years ago that I would not own or drive a motor vehicle. Never mind why; it’s not a simple answer, and it shouldn’t matter to anyone but me. Suffice it to say, walking in Madison — downtown, that is — can be pleasant visually, and good exercise, IF you’ve got a car waiting for you whenever you want to use it; and IF you aren’t carrying anything heavy; and IF the place you want to get to isn’t 10 or 12 blocks away.
Sure, sure, you could say that about any town that’s larger than 200 or 300 hundred population. But here are a few things about Madison’s layout you may have never thought of, if you drive everywhere.
For one, when you’re downtown, if you need to buy groceries or gasoline, there are just two places you can get the former — the Jay-C Store, and Fast Max; and you can only fill up the tank at the latter place. Neither are on Main Street, meaning that they are isolated from the principal downtown shopping drag.
Now, in all fairness, I’ll note that most of the downtown restaurants do tend to cluster along Main Street, centrally located. I’m a restaurant eater mostly, and a non-driver, so that’s important to me.
But if you look at downtown Madison as a whole — what used to be “Madison,” period, before the annexing of old North Madison and the suburbs in the early 1950s, you’ll see that it sprawls lazily along and beside the Ohio River in a long east-to-west sweep. Great for cruising around in a car or strolling through just for sightseeing purposes; NOT so good if you need to carry two armfuls of groceries home, and don’t have transportation. You might be looking at the same 10-block walk I mentioned above.
Now, take a look at the hilltop, which is separated from the downtown by the hill roads which make such a sharp division it’s almost like two separate towns. The downtown does have sidewalks along virtually every foot of street. The hilltop, on the other hand, lacks said sidewalks in most places with the notable exception of Cragmont Street between Clifty Drive and the top of the Hanging Rock Hill. Makes it rough if you have to get around on “shank’s ponies,” as the old timers used to call foot traffic.
Business placement on the hilltop, like downtown, is sometimes inconvenient, too. Go west of Clifty Drive and Michigan Road, and you’re out of supermarkets. Shop at Wal-Mart, then want to eat out nearby, and Bob Evans is your only choice. And this is no knock on that restaurant, which is a fine one where I eat often. But a little more variety in the neighborhood would sure be nice.
Of course, we Americans are so wedded to our automobiles that we view almost any walk as arduous. Occasionally I will eat at the Ponderosa, then stroll over to Wal-Mart for a little shopping. When I tell friends that, they act as if I had just walked 25 miles! Hey, folks, it’s not that far when you’re used to it.
This matter of inconvenience for walkers is remedied considerably by the presence of Hilltop Taxi — which I patronized for many years — and in more recent years, the Catch-A-Ride buses. Both services have been a godsend for those of us who prefer to keep our feet on the ground.
But don’t misunderstand me. It’s not anyone’s “fault” that Madison isn’t as good a “walking town” as some people seem to think. It’s just the way the city grew.
Anyway, I thought that those of you who are usually behind the wheel, might appreciate seeing things from the perspective of one who you pass while he’s trudging along beside the road on the upcoming fine summer days.
Old Corporal <corporalko@yahoo.com>
Take a walk!, – Sunday, June 01, 2008 at 18:43:05 (EDT)
