Personal Mobility, A Short History

My mom says that I was an early walker, somewhere around the age of one. Although photographs and home movies have primarily formed my childhood memories, it seems that I was an active child. I have always resonated with my active imagination and was rarely interested in prolonged sedentary activities. This is still true today; sitting down to write these blog posts has been postponed by my fascination with the walks I continue to take.

I distinctly remember my first independent walks to friend’s houses and to the school bus stop in my neighborhood around age four or five. The journeys were long, in my young worldview, passing by aunt hills, worms after summer rains, and the house where my teacher lived are still full of stories.

My parents have always owned cars, one each. The majority of traveling in my daily life living with my parents was inside a car. I came to love cars, which prompted the delivery of a Power Wheel for Christmas – my first (electric) car. I spent quite a bit of time driving the miniature Jeep around, after a few years I was too big to be powered by the battery.

In the summer after second grade I had a bike wreck and scraped myself up pretty good. Getting back on my bike after recovering was difficult, but I have been riding a bike since childhood. I spent the majority of my free time riding it through the neighborhoods near my house with friends. Aside from trips to the convenience store and to friend’s houses I never used my bike for transportation, which seems odd now. I grew up in a very small town, where riding a bike would have been easy.

I particularly remember walking to school in the sixth and seventh grades, because it was located at the end of my neighborhood. I walked to school for two years and nearly a decade later I’m walking to school again.

At age 16 I got my first job and it was located about 12 blocks from my house. I remember considering the job the previous summer but turning it down because I could not yet drive independently. My mom suggested riding my bike, but it seemed foreign to me – to use my bike for transportation instead of recreation. Looking back, I think I was more concerned with my pending driver’s permit and its related driving associations. I felt I had earned the right to drive and did not want to use my bike.

From here I used my car exclusively to transport myself outside of my house, until I went to Missouri State University where I lived on campus my freshman year. I still had my car, but I did walk around campus. Sophomore year I moved off-campus, across town, and again became reliant on my car.

The summer before moving to Minneapolis I received a new car, so naturally I drove it everywhere. I soon learned, however, that parking downtown was not economically viable and relying on my roommate for rides was not self-sustaining. This realization, paired with sustainable education and my evolving worldview, prompted an emergence of walking, biking, and this blog.