Pedestrians Beware!

On the way home tonight we hit a pedestrian, and it got me to thinking—we have constructed the most pedestrian unfriendly cities. We design cities without one thought of pedestrian traffic. In the most distant places, hours away from civilization, we construct subdivisions, so that we can walk 12 feet from front door to automobile and then 12 feet from automobile to the office.

I have never known how to be a pedestrian. The world that I have always known includes hours of commuting on roads where pedestrians are aliens. I am lost in a sea of automobiles. If I were forced to travel my normal routes without the assistance of my vehicle, I would be forced to travel on routes where I am not welcome (i.e. the federal highway system). The nearest public transportation could be in another state for all that I know.

What would our world look like without all these roads?