How far would you walk?

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Another thread reminded me of a discussion DH & I had last night. I am considering walking to work every day due to gas prices. I live less than a mile from my store.
Well we then started talking about if we had to walk to Mass how far would we walk (really how long since we really don’t know our walking speed off the top of our heads). We had decided we would walk at least an hour possibly an hour and half.
So my question to you is how long would you walk one way to get to Mass?
 
If I had the ability to walk any distance, I would say 2 hours one way would be my limit.

As it is, I cannot walk a city block 😦 So, I will save money some other way or get a ride should gas become so expensive.
 
As long as it took. Once, when I was in another Parish, we had a visiting Priest from somewhere in Africa. He said that the people from a certain village walked all night to make it to Mass on Sunday and that their Church wasn’t much more than a building with no windows. Even when it rained, horrid downpours, with much thunder and lightening, they came and sat in wet pews with no windows to keep the rain out. How much they must love our dear Lord, and He them.
 
What a great question! I didn’t vote, because I have two different answers.

When I lived in UT, I walked to Mass 1 hour, and 1 hour back. Recently when on business, I took a cab to the Church, but walked home, not finding a cab. That took about 1.5 hours…

But, with kids, I wouldn’t think of walking more than a half hour. 4 kids, at their ages, IMO would be a heroic act of virtue…
 
When I lived in the City, if it was less than 24 blocks, I walked. if it was more, I took the CTA (public transportation).

Out here- If I can’t sneeze it, I don’t seem to walk it. That’s got to change, esp. since my suburb does have sidewalks (not all do).
 
JustAnotherThou said:
Another thread reminded me of a discussion DH & I had last night. I am considering walking to work every day due to gas prices. I live less than a mile from my store.
Well we then started talking about if we had to walk to Mass how far would we walk (really how long since we really don’t know our walking speed off the top of our heads). We had decided we would walk at least an hour possibly an hour and half.
So my question to you is how long would you walk one way to get to Mass?
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I dunno…a lot of my shifts at work are 5am to 2pm. I have to wear business-fancy, can get away with business casual. I would need to bring a change of clothes…and the bathrooms really aren’t a good place to change. I can’t imagine leaving at 4am to walk to work, then getting there and changing in the bathroom.
 
Fortunately, if it ever came to that, I would only have to walk three blocks to the bus stop, then take the bus downtown. But if the buses quit, too, I’d walk up to an hour and a half each way as long as I could wear comfortable shoes.
 
I didn’t vote (wasn’t sure what to put.)

I think if I were in a situation with absolutely no alternative to walking (not very likely in the USA in this day and age- if you live somewhere where there’s no alternative to walking and no church close by, you likely have some sort of vehicle) I’d walk as long as it took, provided I was in good health and the round trip wasn’t more than a full day. But I think that would be a very unlikely situation.

That said, I’ve lived most of my adult life without a car, so I’m used to walking about. Realistically, I wouldn’t walk for more than a couple hours a way (at my walking speed about 6-7 miles.) I’d find a church closer to public transportation, or a ride, or if necessary, move to a place closer to a church. Anything more than a couple hours is problematic in terms of shoe leather and the elements, in my experience.

The farthest I’ve ever walked to church was about 3 miles each way.
 
allhers said:
As long as it took. Once, when I was in another Parish, we had a visiting Priest from somewhere in Africa. He said that the people from a certain village walked all night to make it to Mass on Sunday and that their Church wasn’t much more than a building with no windows. Even when it rained, horrid downpours, with much thunder and lightening, they came and sat in wet pews with no windows to keep the rain out. How much they must love our dear Lord, and He them.
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😊 I was just thinking about how I never walked more than ten minutes to Mass. In my town we have hundreds of churches and parishes, I never had to walk for long.
Oh, but I go to pilgrimages, does that count? Sometimes I walk ten hours to get to Mass 🙂
 
We have one car and my daughters sometimes take it to school, rather than me drive them. Since their school is almost 20 miles away, it saves on gas and is better for the environment. When they take the car, I do walk to Mass. I walk at a fairly good speed and it takes me about 35 minutes one way. I don’t really mind walking, I grew up without a car, but I really hate the traffic, especially the HUGE trucks that go by (no offense to truckers who are just doing their jobs). There aren’t sidewalks for parts of my walk as well, just the shoulder of the road. If I lived in an area where there was little traffic that would be great.

I know a woman, who just passed away at 98. She walked to Mass every day until a few years ago. I guess it was about a mile away from her home. These past few years her daughter drove her, but she still made daily Mass just about every day. To see such devotion and love to our Lord was just so wonderful. Even at the very end with her walker and her vision just about gone completely, where I think every step must have felt like a mile, she was there.
 
Ghoti will understand this if he sees it: When I lived in Clarkson, I walked one mile to the GO train station, rode into town and walked another quarter mile to get the the TTC subway platform. At the end of the subway ride I walked upstairs to the bus platform and rode to the corner about 3/8 mile from the office where I worked. Reverse the process to get home in the evening.
It was great. I took my breviary with me. By the time I got home I was charged up to take over from the wife and take care of the children through bed time.

Matthew
 
I would walk as far as I can walk, and get home again, which is about 20-25 minutes (one way) and I can do a 30 minute mile, woo-woo, 2mph is my top forward speed. tried walking over the causeway when I lived on S Padre Island, but hurt too bad to make it all the way home after I got back to the Island (only Catholic church is in Port Isabel, about 6-8 blocks from the bridge) because I still had a couple more miles to go. took the trolley, which only runs every couple of hrs on Sunday, so Mass took about 5 hrs (with lunch while I waited). closest church now is at least 5 miles away, not even a possibility.
 
This is a curious discussion. No one seems to have come into the twentieth century. Where are your bicycles? I know that mine is in the shed needing some repair (bent wheel) before I can use it again. But think, you can pick up a used bike for $20 or so at a garage sale, take it to a bicycle shop for a tune-up for another twenty and you haven’t paid more than the cost of a tank of gas on your B***k. Why walk when you can ride?
By switching to a bike I can increase my maximum walk from a couple of miles to more like ten or twelve. Scottish technology strikes again!!

Matthew
 
drafdog said:
This is a curious discussion. No one seems to have come into the twentieth century. Where are your bicycles? Snip

Why walk when you can ride?

Matthew
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Well, I can’t speak for everyone, (😃 ) but I am a girl.

We’re talking about getting to church, and I, for one, can’t ride a bike in a skirt without getting it caught in the chain. For that matter, I can’t ride in nice pants without the legs getting caught in the chain.

Plus, in rain/ice/snow you’re much more likely to arrive dry and alive on foot than on a bike. (And that streak of mud & oil you get on your back when you ride in the rain, just doesn’t accessorize my Sunday best very well! 😛 )

I rode my bike to work last year, but there I had a place to change and store my biking clothes, which I wouldn’t at church.
 
drafdog said:
Why walk when you can ride?
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Some of us have age-related or medical issues which make bike-riding unsafe or impractical. As a lady over 50, I am getting cataracts which are not yet bad enough to require surgery, but they are bad enough that I can’t see things in low-contrast. If I’m on dark pavement, I can’t see irregularities in the surface of the road such as large cracks, potholes, etc. until it is too late to avoid them, esp. if it is a cloudy day. I also have a hard time seeing darker gray-colored cars approaching if they don’t have their headlights on. After almost ruining my front wheel by hitting a pothole I didn’t see, I decided that it was time to hang up my bike helmet (it didn’t feel too good on my nether regions, either, since I rode a narrow-seated road bike). In a case of a dire emergency, I would ride again and take my chances, but I feel much safer staying in my car or taking the bus or train.
 
IIRC, leisurely walking for most “fit” people is 2 mph. 3 mph is exercise for me. 3.6 mph gets me winded (on the treadmill), personally. 4 mph and I’m speed walking or running.

I put 1-2 hours. But if that was my ONLY way to ever get to Mass, I’d walk whatever it took. Thankfully, my church is 2 miles from the house, so I’m lucky if I ever have to walk!

Bicycles are awesome! I did a little Googling and it looks like cycling gets you 15-20 mph. You CAN wear a skirt, technically, since that’s why “girl bikes” have the sloping bar in front. But it might fly up if you’re not wearing early 20th-century petticoats. 😛
 
The entrance to our neighborhood is just 1/4 mile from church… and our house is about 1/4 mile back from the entrance to the neighborhood…
Seeing that we’d walk probably 3.5 to 4mph… it would take us no more than 10-15 minutes to walk to church (including waiting on the traffic lights)…
Not bad! 🙂

But, since we’re usually throwing the van in park and unlatching seatbelts at 8:59am… I don’t think we’d do so well walking! LOL!
 
I think that distance is not the only factor. You also have to take terrain and weather into account. A 2 mile walk along a nice flat road in pleasant weather is vastly diffierent from a 2 mile walk up a hill in 36 degree centigrade heat with high humidity or the same walk in snow or pouring rain.
I posted something similar a while back. I have a friend who doesn’t drive living on top of a small mountain about 7km from the nearest church. It is just over an hour to walk down but closer to 1 3/4 hours back. Pushing a bicycle back up the hill is exhausting, especially from May to October when the temperature is over 30 and the humidity in the 80s. Her priest told here that if she is unable to afford a taxi there and back every week or get a lift from somone, she is released from her obligation to attend Mass.
Gearoidin
 
drafdog said:
Ghoti will understand this if he sees it: When I lived in Clarkson, I walked one mile to the GO train station, rode into town and walked another quarter mile to get the the TTC subway platform. At the end of the subway ride I walked upstairs to the bus platform and rode to the corner about 3/8 mile from the office where I worked. Reverse the process to get home in the evening.
It was great. I took my breviary with me. By the time I got home I was charged up to take over from the wife and take care of the children through bed time.

Matthew
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The last time I walked to Mass, I was visiting my brother in TO and I was determined to get to St. Michael’s for Sunday Mass. Unfortunately, I hadn’t looked at the map book closely and ended up getting off the subway at Bloor. Unsure how far I still had to go I headed off on foot (in high heels). I knew I had to go east then south so I walked to Church then headed south hoping to find Bond St. at the next intersection, or the next, or the next, or the next… It was never going to happen since Bond runs parallel to Church. That part of town is strangely deserted at 9 am on a Sunday morning – very different from the way it had been hopping 9 hours earlier.

I can’t recall exactly how long I walked but it seemed like forever. It was worth it though – and imagine my 'Doh!" moment when I found the proper subway station 2 blocks from the Cathedral.
 
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