Natural Instinct to Move and Barriers to Movement

We all have a natural instinct to move. Movement is the major survival mechanism for procuring food, water, shelter, safety, a mate & so on.  Today the movement instinct is far less essential than it once was. Thanks to companies like Amazon you could probably sit at your front door and have practically all your survival needs delivered. I imagine a mate too, but you’ll likely need another website for them. However, just because you have a smartphone at the ready to ensure survival doesn’t mean the drive to move has disappeared.

Over the past couple years I have been driving around the country (in a semi) and dropping in to explore. How? On a bike. Where? Mostly small towns, but sometimes cities. Besides the weather, the one thing that deterred me from exploring most often was movement barriers.

What do I mean by movement barriers? Let me explain by way of example. If you live in New York City there are at least three ways to move about the city, by foot, bicycle and auto. When you fall out your front door in this mega metropolis any one of these modes for travel can be done without much thought. The city was designed with no barrier to movement.

In contrast, there are many cities and towns throughout this beautiful country that left no room to roam by foot or by bike.  Too often your only option is to share the roadway with fast moving vehicles. This is not a safe choice in light of the number of drivers who seem to be in a hurry. So when conditions dictate moving under your own power to someplace, you’ll likely opt for the car because of the safety barriers.

The ability to move freely by any means is a hot topic. A major dwelling trend is to an environment that quenches our natural instinct to move. Hopefully this puts an end to the car-centric designed places.

Are barriers to movement killing your hometown? Take them down!