...with orthodox jews and walking in the street?"
Such was the question posed to me by a (non-jewish) co-worker yesterday on behalf of her fiancé.
The young man lives near a frum community and when out and about on the weekends consistently observes the jewish members of the community eschewing the sidewalk to instead walk in the street.
I know this co-worker fairly well and have a pretty good picture of what kind of guy she is engaged to, so this was not asked in an accusatory fashion. Just the opposite, he was curious to know if there was a "reason" for this "practice".
So what say you the reading public? What's behind this love affair with the blacktop?
(I have my own theory which I will put in the comments later...don't want to influence anybody's thinking:)
One reason is the practical. Some of the sidewalks in our area are uneven or in fall are not cleared of leaves or in winter are not cleared of ice or snow, because no one is shoveling on Shabbos but the trucks have cleared the streets. It's safer to walk on the blacktop.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because it's difficult to walk and shmooze as a group on the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteWhile ProfK's point is sometimes true, people do so even in the summer in my experiences. This could be because they get used to it from the fall/winter, but most likely it's that combined with the idea that people live in predominantly Orthodox neighborhoods (at least they think they do), and therefore they don't think it really bothers anyone because there are so few cars on the road.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious as to whether the walking in the street is as common in communities which are much smaller or where there is clearly a large non-Jewish presence. From what I can recall, the street-walking was not nearly as common on the East Side of Milwaukee, where there are very few frum Jews, or on the main streets in Cleveland (S. Taylor, Green, Cedar) as on the side streets which were majority Jewish. This could be a function of the size of the street, or of the perception that there are no cars on the side streets and therefore it is "okay".
I'm not sure why they walk in the street, but I have noticed that Hasidic men always seem to be in a huge hurry, and that many of them carry umbrellas even when it's not raining.
ReplyDeleteBy me there are no sidewalks on many blocks, or the sidewalks are uneven or in bad condition, and it's a pain in the butt to switch off between sidewalks and streets, so you might as well just stay in the street the whole time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in very Jewish areas where there are no cars on Shabbos, people probably see the street as just a larger sidewalk, so you might as well use that.
But if there are perfectly good sidewalks everywhere and plenty of cars, I have no idea why people would walk in the streets. I guess us Jews are just weird . . .
Jews tend to have large families and the streets are larger. That's my guess.
ReplyDeleteno sidewalks in our 'hood!
ReplyDeleteWalking on the street avoids being hit by the cars that are driving on the sidewalks :-) But of course not in Cleveland Heights.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Diana on this one. I think the fact that we are together on Shabbos with family and/or friends/neighbors walking to and from Shul. More room. It has always been a pet peeve for me. I think the impression it gives is that we think we own the streets and we should therefore be careful not to do so. My husband thinks that as long as we stick to the side of the road, it shouldn't make too much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteOh well, beaten to the punch two times.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking is along the same lines as diana & anonymom.
Don't know what community this person lives near... but I walk in the street when I'm in places where the sidewalk is very congested with slow-moving people all going in the opposite direction. There are two areas in my commute that fit this description, one Jewish, one not. Strangely, I don't often have this problem in places like midtown Manhattan despite the fact that there are always hordes of people there -- they move.
ReplyDeleteI know my group of friends walks on the road all the time walking back to campus after Friday dinners, and it's purely because there's more room there. If there are even 3 people walking together, there's just no room for everyone to walk together, so it makes more sense to use the road if there's anything less than constant traffic. Although I will say that we try to get out of the way as quickly as possible when there's a car coming.
ReplyDeleteinterestingly enough in israel you HAVE to walk on the sidewalk (when there is one) because you cant be in the way of a car. this is because you cant cause the driver to slow down in case he is jewish. that would be chillul shabbos.
ReplyDeleteThere was a yeshivah bochur walking in front of my car all the way down my street the other day. I so wished I had my camera at the time, and I would have entitled the photo, "Oblivious." He was completely in his own little world...
ReplyDeleteI have no clue why he was walking in the street because the sidewalks were shoveled and easier to navigate.
I had to write an article over the summer for a jewish paper about how in a certain place, they were enforcing a rule that if there are sidewalks available, you are not allowed to walk in the street. Some people thought this was aimed against the Jews who walk in the street on Shabbat. I kind of disagree with that and thought it was just for safety reasons and courtesy to the cars who drive around, but anyway, I'm not sure the point of this but, er, yeah.
ReplyDeleteI think people like to walk in the street because normally they don't so it's fun. :D
Plus, you can walk in a nice spread of people and talk.
ReplyDeleteOkay, gonna stop commenting now.
ReplyDelete