Walkability Movement: a desperately needed fix to a great loss

It occurs to me that we have been viewing the evaluation of how walkable a community is, namely walkability, as a forward urban-planning thinking and cutting-edge technology (for example, using GIS or Walkability Score as ways to quantify walkability). It actually renders a sad and desperate scene to begin with: we have lost reliable walkable environment (in many American cities) and we are looking for a fix.

What brought me to think of this is my current trip in China. I am staying in a second-tier city, Luoyang (population 1.93 million in the urban area according to 2010 Census), and I have been running errands with my mother preparing for the holiday. We walk most of the time. We take a ride (taxi or bus) or drive only when we choose to, but not because there's no safe walking environment. The streets in the entire city are well connected and all equipped with wide sidewalk. You can walk to anywhere you want until you are too exhausted.

A street in Luoyang, China

A street at night in Beijing, China

This makes me realize that sometimes, for example in the case of walking in the city, we work so hard towards becoming advanced, and  in consequence, we invent industries to fix our problems and to provide for our basic needs. We are more and more removed from our inherent abilities.

The advocacy for  walkability is not a trendy "smart" technology; it is a fix to a problem that desperately needs to be worked on. To point this out is not to criticize the effort in fixing the problem, but to remind ourselves to be more mindful as we head towards becoming "smart".

Walkability movement, obviously, is currently not a need in an environment like my hometown. But with the increased consumption of cars, we can be positive that walking (and the associated infrastructure) will reduce overtime. But it does not have to disappear, if we are careful.