As many of you may know, Ann Arbor was recently voted the third best city for walking in the entire country. Only Cambridge, Mass and New York City beat us out.

And one of the reasons we got this honor is the number of people that walk to work each day. With lots of houses close to our vibrant downtown, Ann Arbor is an ideal city for walking to work. According to a 2005 survey conducted by the UM for getDowntown, 15% of downtown workers walk to work.

But don’t just take my word for it. I asked several walkers to share their stories, thoughts and pictures. Here’s what they had to say:

Words of Wisdom from People Who Walk to Work

Name and Organization Info: My name is Alexis DiLeo, I work at City Hall in the Planning & Development Services Unit (I’m a planner)

Describe your walking commute: I walk almost everyday between my work and my house on West Stadium Boulevard.  I take the bus on super, super cold says, rainy days, and super hot days in the summer.  I think it’s about a 1.5 mile trip one-way, takes about 28 minutes.

What I like best about walking to work is the calories that I burn on the way, makes going out to lunch and dinner so much less guilty.  It only takes about 10 extra minutes to walk home compared to driving or bussing, and saves me a trip to the gym.

That’s my story.

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Name and Organization Info: John Beeson, Architect, Quinn Evans Architects

Describe your walking commute: Uphill both ways :), I walk to my children’s daycare in Kerrytwon, then to work. Total walk is about 3/4 mile .

What do you like best about walking to work? I get to really experience the weather, for better or worse. It reminds me that I am actually human and still alive.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: The concept of walking everywhere is really foreign to everyone else I speak to. I think, if it weren’t for the employment opportunities and the close residential neighborhoods, my family would probably not live in Michigan. I just really wish there were more services available downtown.

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Name and Organization Info: Cathy Boblitt, Administrative Assistant, University of Michigan Health System Department of Radiation Oncology

Describe your walking commute: Walk to and from work (starting from Spring St. to 1500 E. Medical Center Drive) a little over 1 mile each way

What do you like best about walking to work? Weather that suits of course… Walking can greatly improve your well-being in all areas of your life!

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: I would like to start a courteous law — for all bikers if they could yell out which side they are passing you (ie: right or coming up on right) would let me know to move over! I’m very frustrated with being side-swiped by handlebars and/or peddles! This is a very serious problem that many walkers share. Many times walkers listen to music while walking and cannot always hear the roar of a two wheel behind us so please share the road, sidewalk, grass, etc. and yell out what side you want to pass on rather than slamming into us!

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Name and Organization Info: Diane Carr, Senior Program Director, Ann Arbor YMCA

Describe your walking commute: Old West Side, Murray Avenue. I’m afraid it’s only about 1/4 of a mile at most. I also walked to the old Y building. I would probably walk up to three miles to work (if time permitted). I enjoy the time to gather my thoughts before work and/or debrief after work.

By far my favorite walking stories however were when the Y was at the old site on the corner of 5th Ave. and William when I used to walk with my daughter, a preschooler who also attended the YMCA daycare. The walk was between 3/4 and 1 mile. When my daughter Lydia, was about 2 1/2 she had had enough of the stroller so we walked. This was an amazing experience. Even though we took the same route every day, with Lydia every day was a unique experience. At different times between the ages of two and 5, Lydia collected bugs, rocks, leaves, dandelions, acorns, and caterpillars. She learned her colors, makes and models of cars, how to read road signs, license plates, and campaign signs. On different occasions she declared herself to be, a boy, Tarzan, Ariel - the little mermaid, a tomboy, a vegetarian, and Jewish. We often sang songs and recited poems. And, I was asked to answer rather difficult questions like: why don’t I have a sister or at least a hamster and can people really grow pink hair? While my daughter and I still often walk to and from the YMCA together, she is eight now, we walk faster and the walk is shorter. I often wish we had further to walk together.

What do you like best about walking to work? Aside from allowing me time to catch up with my daughter after work, as she attends the YMCA afterschool program, it’s practical. I can make it to and from work in the worst of weather and I don’t have to stress about finding parking.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: On bad winter days, I have had many opportunities over the years to help neighbors, or commuters dig out or push-out cars. I have found wayward dogs, and returned them to their owners, and I have gotten to know the newspaper delivery man and our neighborhood postal worker.

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Name and Organization Info: Lindsay-Jean Hard, Special Projects Manager, Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority

Describe your walking commute: I only have to walk four blocks to get to my office.

What do you like best about walking to work? I consider myself really lucky to get to walk to work every day! Living and working downtown provides me with a number of benefits. I don’t lose any of my day with a big commute to work, I’m able to go home on my lunch hour every afternoon and take my pooch for a spin around the block, and it is really convenient to pick up groceries on my walk home in the evening. This has also allowed my husband and I to become a one-car family, which is a great savings for us.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: Although four blocks isn’t all that much exercise, I think it might be enough to get my daily dose of Vitamin D…

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Name and Organization Info: Jane Allen, Legal Assistant, City of Ann Arbor

Describe your walking commute: I walk home from work, City Hall to upper Brooks Street, 1.3 miles. (I take the bus to work.)

What do you like best about walking to work? #1 item – MP3 device. You can listen to the radio, or your own music, just like you could in your car. This makes the walk no end of fun. Itunes and its ilk allow you to buy your old favorites without having to buy an entire album.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: With proper clothing, it is possible to walk in all weather comfortably. I find the only weather that gives me pause is heavy rain, and I will wait it out or take the bus on those days. Twice I have been caught in rain, and was once saved by a passing fellow employee, after spending some time under a tree (no umbrella.) The other time, it rained intermittently, and I ran up on people’s porches during the downpours (one house I knew was vacant, the other, I just hoped the people weren’t home yet. I was not arrested.) A close second is ice, and there are non-skid shoe devices for this that I plan to buy. (I only fell down once this year, and that was getting on the bus.) Snow is great, the footing better than you might think, and in the two big drive-time storms this year, I got home much faster on foot than I would have in a car.

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Name and Organization Info: Dunrie Greiling, Director of Happiness, Pure Visibility

Describe your walking commute: 0.6 miles

What do you like best about walking to work? Not having to park!

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: I enjoy window shopping along Main Street, running errands at the Post Office, checking out fun things at Acme or Downtown Home & Garden. I believe walking connects me more strongly with my neighborhood and the town, much more than I’d feel connected if I was enclosed in a car.

I feel like it is a privilege to be able to afford a home within walking distance of my work, and a privilege to live in a great place like Ann Arbor where there are wonderfully cool companies like Pure Visibility within walking distance of my home.

Here’s a photo of me on a walk with my husband: http://flickr.com/photos/dunrie/416822006/
Here’s a bunch of PVers: http://flickr.com/photos/ownpageone/2186727094/

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Name and Organization Info: Nancy Murray, Assistant Director of Special Projects, JSTOR on Liberty and 5th

Describe your walking commute: I live up near Vets Park. My walk is 1 3/4 miles and takes me 30 to 40 minutes depending on conditions of the sidewalks–and my mood!

What do you like best about walking to work? I like being out in the fresh air. I like the fact that I get over an hour’s worth of exercise a day without really thinking about it.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: I like getting acquainted with the different faces of people and pets along the route and to watch the different neighborhoods go through the seasons.

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Name and Organization Info: Nancy Stone, Communications Liaison for Public Services, City of Ann Arbor

Describe your walking commute: It’s about 3/4 mile, 10-20 minutes depending if I stop for coffee.

What do you like best about walking to work? Time to lead in/phase out of work mode each day. It’s relaxing. I get to literally smell the roses, see the students enter/graduate from the neighborhood school, say hello to people and pets, long-time bike commuters wave (Such as Dan Ezekiel, biking to Forsythe Middle School).

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: Several neighbors have remarked that they had “V8″ moments when they see me walking–and passing them at the street lights. Once they start walking themselves, they have felt better with the exercise and saved money from gas and parking.

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Name and Organization Info: Ira Lax, Outreach Assistant, Ann Arbor District Library

Describe Your Walking Commute: 1.5 miles from Jackson-Dexter split off Huron.

What do you like best about walking to work? Walking is a great way to start and end the work day. In the morning the air is fresh and kids are walking to Slauson Middle School on Washington St., people are going in and out of the Y, and others are making their way down Washington St. to work downtown or on campus. It’s great to be part of a river of walkers! On the way home, the bus station and the downtown streets are busy. It feels good to stretch the legs and breathe the outside air. It takes a few blocks to get a steady pace going, but soon I get absorbed in random thoughts or focused on the trees, birds, dogs, cats, and all the human activity of an active town with lots of cars and many people walking.

Please share an interesting story or thought about walking to work: I’m happy I can walk to work every day; it feels good to be part of many folks breathing the air together outside, instead of in a car listening to the radio or talking on a cell phone. When I see someone talking on their cell while walking by themselves or pushing a stroller, I think what a waste of an opportunity to be fully with yourself or your child. For me, without a cell, these moments are too precious to miss. It helps me experience the seasons or be totally by myself or with a companion in the fullest sense.

Many people tell me that they’ve seen me walking all over, and I’ve gotten to know lots of folks who live along the route that I’ve been walking since 1991.

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Name and Organization Info: Carl Scarbro, Environmental Protection Specialist, U.S. EPA – OTAQ: Assessment and Standards Division

Describe Your Walking Commute: I walk from near Mack School to EPA which is next to the Plymouth Road Krogers. It’s 3.25 mile walk one way. It takes me an hour to get to work and an hour to get home. Sometimes I walk thru Kerrytown to get a coffee or a piece of chocolate or stop at a liquor store and buy a bottle or two of beer on the way home.

The walk in the morning is great. People seem to be in less of a hurry to get to work and the traffic is calm and predictable. The walk home is good, but the traffic is crazier. People drive like they need to escape.

I have a little radio and I listen to music, usually WCBN. I don’t listen to news or talk. I get newspapers for that. I don’t listen all the time though. Sometimes I just take in the world as it is. Traffic noise is really only bad on Plymouth Road. Big trucks are the worst with Harleys coming in a distant second.

I walk in all weather. I wear an expensive water proof breathable jacket and in really bad weather over pants. They do keep you dry and are worth the money. They do wear out if you wear them a lot, but it takes a couple of years. I dress in layers just like the experts tell you. I don’t ever get cold even when it is below zero and the wind it blowing.

When there is deep snow I wear galoshes and when there is ice I pick my way carefully from side walk to road to the snow covered easement between the two. It’s a challenge, but it only really adds a few minutes to the walk. I have fallen a few times, but I always seem to land on my butt. I didn’t fall once this year.

I wear inexpensive light hiking boots most of the time. I get about 4 months of solid wear per pair, but I alternate with another pair. Therefore, a pair of boots last 8 months. I wear expensive socks, though. They feel so good.

Last year I started to drive a motorcycle to work once a week, weather permitting. I won’t drive on ice or snow, but it can be cold. I don’t like riding in town, but I need the practice with traffic. I usually ride dirt roads home (it’s a street legal dirt bike). I enjoy the mud and the pot holes. Motorbikes are fun, lot more fun than cars. I have a fantasy of riding a motorbike across Mongolia so I feed it this way.

What do you like best about walking to work? I think the best time to walk in the year is when sunrise or sunset coincides with the walk. Ann Arbor has a large population of crows that fly from or to their roosts and that is fun to see and hear (they make quite a racket). The crows are funny to watch when they hang out around the dumpsters. They seem to be above it all. The Aleuts of Alaska say that crows and ravens invented the world. They may be on to something.

You also hear wing tips of the bigger birds as they fly, especially the Canada Geese, they make a whooshing noise. Last year I saw a herd of wild turkeys on Broadway near the little strip mall where the Kana Supermarket is. I see deer, wood chucks, skunks, possums and squirrels all the time. In the Huron River I think I saw an otter last week.

Lots of critters in the urban wilderness.

I like to watch the police drive around. There is one Ann Arbor car numbered Car 54. I keep thinking Gunther Tudie is aboard. When I see it I sing ‘Car 54 where are you’. I think its some sort of Zen thing.

I walk because I enjoy it. When I do drive to work, I don’t enjoy it. It is as simple as that.

I carry a camera, here are some winter highlights:

The Gandy Dancer

Geese on the Huron River