Weird Man Walking

The Atlanta metro area, where I live, has the longest commute in the country (http://www.cobbrides.com/pdfs/Atlantans%20crank%20up%20commute%20times.pdf), has the 12th highest rate of pedestrian casualties (http://www.peds.org/theissue.htm), and only a fair mass transit system. Friends think it is weird that I walk and take public transportation, even though I only do it occasionally. I once took a 2 mile walk and had a friend stop me and ask if I was OK. I recently started taking mass transit to meet friends at movies to avoid driving during rush house and just give myself break. My friends were astonished – particularly since I drive a hybrid and get almost 50 mpg. Since I live in a relatively pedestrian friendly neighborhood, I regularly walk to the cleaners, the bank, the drug store, and various bars and restaurants. Every once in a while I bike somewhere, but being a big guy, I sweat a lot and can’t do that if I need to look respectable when I get there.

Unfortunately, the transit system is limited and typically takes longer than driving, so I usually drive to business meetings (although I do walk to some that are very close by). Since I don’t commute to work, (unless you call the walk from my bedroom to my breakfast room/office a commute), I drive less than most people.

So what’s my point? Well, I’m not really sure, but this whole idea that if you do anything different than most people you are seen as weird is starting to trouble me. How this relates to green building, at least in my opinion, is that too many homeowners expect that they don’t have to think about anything in their homes. We keep our windows sealed up tight and heat and air condition our homes even when the weather is nice, just because we are too lazy to turn off the thermostat and open some windows. Even worse, I know people who leave the AC running with doors and windows open. Others like to turn the heat up in the winter and sleep with the windows open. Lately I have been thinking about how to interconnect our HVAC systems with alarm sensors to turn them off when windows and doors are open. I like the idea, but while it is available in some high end home control systems, it is still too complicated and expensive for the average house. So this leads me to the thought that, why are we so lazy that we can’t just flip a switch and open some windows. Are we that useless? It reminds me of what happens to the humans in the movie Wall-E – if you haven’t seen it, go. Everyone is totally catered to and has become so bloated and lazy that they can’t even stand up anymore.

Enough whining for today. I’m going to act weird by opening my windows and taking a walk now.

This post was originally published on www.housingzone.com