Let's Talk About Sidewalks

Let's talk about sidewalks. You know, the paved paths are put out around neighborhoods, shopping centers, and college campuses? Yeah, I want to talk about those. Have you ever thought twice about why we all use them? Well, earlier today I started thinking about this and may have found an answer to this question. 

It relates to the concept of nudging, which I thoroughly described in my earlier blog about the use of trash can receptacles on the Montana State University campus. Both sidewalks and trash receptacles are placed in certain areas to get individuals to use them without acknowledging that they are being guided to do so. I'm not trying to say that people only use these conveniences because they are meant to do so, but I do feel that there are greater underlying reasons for which we do so. For example, if I asked you why you use a sidewalk, instead of just making your own way to your destination, how would you answer? Well, I would say that I use a sidewalk because it's safer and easy to walk on Both of these facts are correct, but are they actually the only two real reasons I use a sidewalk? I believe that the reasons go much deeper than this, and correlate with how our society has structured itself.

Our society is based on maintaining order among civilians through the use of various social constructs and laws. Sidewalks are just one example of the these. By creating easy to walk on paths that are apart from vehicular traffic, we as civilians perceive them as safe. When in fact you can still be hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk just as easily as if you were walking on the side of the road. Yet, we still see walk on them with comfort. This in turn, may be related to the fact that we, as humans, search for ways to belong. So, when another person tells you at a young age that you need to stay on the sidewalk because it's safe, you believe them and carry that belief with you for the rest of your life. Or, maybe you ran off of the sidewalk once and accidentally ruined your neighbors favorite landscape, causing you to be scolded and singled out amongst your peers. What I am really trying to get at, is that there are so many more factors that contribute to our unconscious decisions to use a sidewalk than the mere it's safer or easy to walk on.

Now, you may have read through this whole blog post and still don't agree with my reasoning for sidewalk usage, and that's okay. But, I encourage you to double think the next time you find yourself mindlessly walking to class on a sidewalk instead of cutting out five minutes of that walk by making your own path.