Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Friday is National Walk to Work Day, a day to leave the car in the garage, wear the walking shoes and a warm coat, and enjoy every step of the commute.

Walkers report humble happenings along their route that drivers miss: Bird songs, the smell of spring flowers, the conversations of other walkers, new grass sprouting through cracks in the sidewalk, the changes in neighborhood flower gardens as the seasons move along, and the way the morning sun lights up Knox County landmarks. There’s more time to look around at the world when one doesn’t have to concentrate on the brake lights of the car ahead.

The more avid fans of walking to work even insist that unless one’s job is across the county from one’s home, driving is so very ... pedestrian.

Four years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched National Walk to Work Day. According to the 2005 U.S. Census, 2 1/2 percent of American workers walk to their jobs. The other 97 1/2 percent are missing exercise opportunities, stressing out in traffic jams, paying for gasoline, paying for parking and pumping out huge amounts of vehicle exhaust.

In Open Air magazine’s March 2008 edition, writer Brian Truitt makes this point: “Let’s say you’re an average 180-pound man who walks two miles each way to and from your office (that means a brisk walk, no puttering). By the time you get back home, you’ll have burned 400 calories, increased your oxygen intake, saved money by avoiding parking fees, banked an extra 61 cents in gas money, prevented approximately four pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and not driven yourself crazy while stuck in traffic.”

Truitt also notes that if the 3.7 million Americans who currently walk to work took a friend along for Friday’s theoretical four-mile walk, 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide would not enter the earth’s atmosphere.

Helping the environment is only part of the beauty of a two-shoe commute. Walking to work starts off the day with exercise and fresh air. Since a five-mile daily walk is recommended by health advisors, walkers can get much of that by hoofing it to work.

Jeanette Willison, a secretary at Centerburg Elementary School, has a two-block commute from her home.

“I enjoy walking, and since it’s so close, it seems silly to drive,” she said.

Willison walks year-round, even in ice and snow, but she won’t walk during lightning storms.

“In the winter when I walk, I find it invigorating, energizing. I enjoy the fresh air. It gets the blood pumping. It takes me five minutes to get there and five minutes to get home, and I try to walk at least half an hour a day in addition to that, just for the exercise,” she said.

When Willison lived near Brandon and drove to Centerburg, winter driving was a real burden.

“When I’d have to drive on the bad roads, that’s when I’d freak out. It’s nice not to have to deal with that now,” she said.

Asked if she minds walking on snow and ice, she responded, “I invested in a pair of really good boots.”

Jacqueline Allen, who teaches language arts and dramatics at Fredericktown High School, moved to Lucas a year and a half ago and now commutes by car. But when she lived in Fredericktown, she walked four blocks to work. She still walks about a mile to her second job at FT Precision, where she’s a part-time English language tutor.

“When time is a factor, I drive. But when I have time to walk, I put on my backpack and go,” she said. “And I certainly feel invigorated by the time I get there. Considering it’s a second job and I’ve worked all day and I’m about to start another three hours of work, it really helps me. And it’s certainly better than a snack or a candy bar.”

Without really meaning to, Allen once conducted a sort of experiment in living locally and walking instead of driving.

“I gave my car to my daughter for four months,” she said. “She was graduating from law school in Milwaukee, and didn’t have a car. She needed to go to job interviews, but without a job she didn’t want to commit to a car payment, so I gave my car to her until she found a job.

“I bicycled around town, and I walked. I shopped locally. My house was very clean,” she said with a laugh. “My dogs were well walked and they were happy. About once a month, a friend would ask me to go to Mount Vernon for shopping, and I’d accept. But I made sure my life was local. And I found I actually did not need a car.”

Allen has some advice for those who want to start commuting on foot.

“It’s easy to get out of practice,” she said. “But if you can do even little walks every day, it reinforces the habit. Increasing your steps by 100 here and 100 there makes a big difference.”

Allen said she misses walking to work every day, but she does have a plan to save gasoline during her commutes between Lucas and Fredericktown.

“I have every intention of getting on my motor scooter as soon as the weather stabilizes,” she said.

It takes only 30 minutes to briskly walk two miles or so. On National Walk to Work Day, try hoofing it for a change, and spend that 61 cents saved on gasoline on something more fun than fossil fuel.