My Egregious Error in Fishers, IN, and One of the Best Ways to Set Your Kids Up for Future Success

Okay - I'm the first one to admit that when I'm stressed out - I lose my attention to detail. Not unusual: it's part of Fight or Flight. Such was the case yesterday, when I headed over to the dollar store to get some last minute accoutrements for our upcoming shindig at work, when I had email flying all over the place yesterday as well. I got to the parking spot. Turned off the Smurfmobile, and then checked my phone for mayhem before heading into the store.

Of course there was said mayhem awaiting me, in which I quickly responded and rectified it. However, the next move was my dumbest of the day, week, or maybe even month: I decided to leave both my phone - AND my smurfmobile key - locked inside my car.

I had an unusual feeling that sooner or later I'd stupidly do this - since I have to take my car key off of my ring to put it in the steering column and forgot to put it back on before grabbing my wallet and locking the car.

There you go. Enjoy one of my MANY stupid moments!

As soon as I shut the door I knew what I had done, and confirmed my stupidity by turning around and facing both my cell phone and my key in the passenger seat through the window. So, I decided there was nothing else to do, really, since I had no phone, nor the key: start hoofing it home.

What I didn't expect, however, was a beautiful 4 mile walk. Not only was it a gorgeous crisp, fall day, and thankfully I had great walking shoes and a good layers on and an opportunity to clear my head without my phone buzzing every 5 seconds - but it also provided an interesting experiment: to explore my hometown of Fishers, IN - on foot. It gave me a whole new perspective on my hometown, which is this:

How walkable is your city?

I returned home in exactly 1 hour, 20 minutes as I later verified with Google maps on how long it should take me. But I also learned, through real feet on the ground, first hand experience--how walkable Fishers, IN really is. (Hint, it's really not that easily walkable.) I literally had to walk through downtown Fishers to get home.

I found on a very busy street of 116th, only ONE side of the street at any point had a sidewalk. There were no 2 way sidewalks on the entire path. Furthermore, at one point, I had to cross 116th on foot to get to the other sidewalk on the other side of the street, as they switched sides of the street at a point or two. Not all of the intersections had great pedestrian crossing lights, either. Not easy. And even on a beautiful day, it was kind of a major pain in the dupa to walk home, even if it does seem like a straight shot on 116th Street. (I will say, however, that one of the busiest intersections maybe of the entire state - I-69 and 116th Street, while also only having sidewalks on one side of the street, seemed to have decent cross walks and pedestrian lights, thankfully.)

Also, last night, 10,000+ steps later, I read this fascinating article at Inc. magazine about the ONE thing to give your kids if you want them to make more money than you do, which is this:

live in a walkable city.

So, if you're:

• Mayor Fadness reading this - please be sure to install more sidewalks in order for families to not only get around on foot in our fair city, but also set parents up for future success with their children raising them in our fair city.
• If you're an urban planner or civic leader, I wouldn't recommend locking your keys in the car 4+ or so miles from your home to hoof it, but I would recommend getting out of your car and trying out your city on foot.
• If you're a parent anywhere - ask yourself and try to see how walkable your city really is - not only for your personal benefits - but also for the benefits of your children and their future success.
• If you're shopping for a new home or neighborhood - find out by walking around in it to see how walkable it is. Not only will you be more active, healthier, and have more time to spend with friends, but again, you'll be setting yourselves and your families up for success.

Let my egregious error benefit you.

You're welcome!

____

Erin L. Albert is a writer, and occasionally does really dumb things like locking her keys in her car. Opinions here are her own, except where noted by others.