Walk every street in your (nearest) town!

[WhitstableDave]

I think it may have been in Country Walking Magazine where I noticed a challenge to walk every street in your town. Zooming in on my nearest town, Whitstable in Kent, on Google Earth I could see that I've walked a lot of them, but by no means all...



...so my aim now is to walk every single one. 

My map shows paths that I've walked as well as roads and it might look as though I've already tried to walk Whitstable's streets just for the sake of it. But the fact is, I do lots of local walks directly from home and as I set off or arrive back I've always tried to choose new routes so as to see what's along roads I've not been along before. Surely I'm not alone in wanting to explore the area where I live as well as to go further afield?

I've decided to allow myself one exemption: I don't think it's necessary to walk down cul-de-sacs, unless there's a path leading out at the end.

I wonder if anyone else has already done something similar or is in the process of doing it. I guess that city-dwellers would have a bigger challenge - unless they focus on a particular district - and those who live in villages and hamlets would need to chose a nearby town. My second nearest town is Herne Bay, about five miles along the coast, and I'm working on there too since I pass through about once a week...

I like to have targets. 

[ninthace]

Every street where I live probably wouldn't amount to 4km, including cul-de-sacs.  I walked more than half of them this pm trying to rehabilitate an injured knee and I only clocked just shy of 2km.

[WhitstableDave]

Every street where I live probably wouldn't amount to 4km, including cul-de-sacs.  I walked more than half of them this pm trying to rehabilitate an injured knee and I only clocked just shy of 2km.

And that's why I suggested the nearest town - or towns. 

But no problem, it was just a thought on a very quiet forum day...

[ninthace]

There is no way I would make repeated 24 mile round trips just to walk the streets of Tiverton!  The best walk there is along the Grand Western Canal which is a 10 mile long lake.

[gunwharfman]

That's already quite a thing here in Portsmouth, its the nearest thing to a sport I think.

[Dovegirl]

I've walked many streets in Brighton and Hove because I enjoy urban walking but I don't do it as a challenge.

[BuzyG]

Every street where I live probably wouldn't amount to 4km, including cul-de-sacs.  I walked more than half of them this pm trying to rehabilitate an injured knee and I only clocked just shy of 2km.

Hope the knee fixes soon. 

[GnP]

I wonder if anyone else has already done something similar or is in the process of doing it. I guess that city-dwellers would have a bigger challenge - unless they focus on a particular district - and those who live in villages and hamlets would need to chose a nearby town. My second nearest town is Herne Bay, about five miles along the coast, and I'm working on there too since I pass through about once a week...

I like to have targets. 

Because of rain and getting over some health issues, apart from when sun is forecast, I have regularly kept closer to home here in south Birmingham.

I set off from my front door, only making up my mind there and then, about what direction to head. I try to take a different route every time but it is getting more difficult as time goes on to think of where.I love the planning in my head though, as I go along and there are so many different ways to go. Walking on pavement you can really crack on, and it is the next best thing to running.So I don`t think I will walk all of the streets in Birmingham, but we live in a southern suburb & it isn`t far to some lovely countryside in the county of Worcestershire.

[Rob Goes Walking]

I've done nearly street in Appleby-in-Westmorland (and going out of town to the neighbouring villages) as part of either a walk or a run. There's a couple by the primary school I haven't. There isn't that many streets though. You've motivated me to get out there and see the few remaining roads I haven't travelled.

[WhitstableDave]

...You've motivated me to get out there and see the few remaining roads I haven't travelled.

Excellent! 

I started thinking about this when I was walking back through Whitstable a few weeks ago. I went down a long unmade road alongside the golf course for the very first time. Not only have I lived in the area for 48 years, but for 3 years I lived within about 30 yards of the aforementioned road. The great thing for me is seeing a very familiar place from an entirely different viewpoint.

[Dread]

I live in Leeds so it'll take me quite a while. Also there are quite a few streets i wouldn't like to walk down, not without a police escort.

[richardh1905]

Good idea for town dwellers, and I have enjoyed exploring the streets of Grange-over-Sands with the dog, but I'm not going to go snooping down every cul-de-sac and crescent, especially when I have the delights of Hampsfell and Eggerslack Woods on my doorstep!

[watershed]

I live in the biggest town in Shetland, but generally avoid road work as compared to our country side its so boring.
I have to admit though because of a bit of knee trouble I have been avoiding more strenuous walks and have done a little bit more on the road recently. We have some great paths that go round the town that gives splendid sea views without having to get in among the houses much. But I wouldn't swap it for the hills or coastal walking. I did an eleven mile walk today on the road and I must admit the speed you can go compared with the hill always surprises me. In the hill I pause to take photos inspect Neolithic ruins, drink tea etc and that brings my average speed down to as low as 2.6 mile an hour over the year.
whereas today it came out as 4.18 miles an hour with a pee break included. I can see how I could become obsessed by trying to get my speed up to 5 miles an hour once my knee was better, but I think the boredom would drive me back into the hills




 

[WhitstableDave]

I always copy my recorded walks to Google Earth, because it not only helps me see where I still need to go, but I think it looks quite cool too... 

About five weeks ago I noticed that I'd walked along most of the roads in Whitstable, but not all. I live a bit more than a mile to the south of the town and I head east or west from home on about half of my local walks (and south on the rest!). I almost always do loops, so I tend to set off or return through Whitstable on the way... and because I like exploring, I've taken a great variety of different ways through the town. So walking along almost every road at some point in the past few years has been entirely natural.

The weather forecast for today was for very strong winds and rain, so I put my planned North Downs walk on hold and I spent ages studying Whitstable on the map looking for roads I'd not yet walked. After all, how better to spend a wet and windy day than to wander around Whitstable and finally fulfil my aim of doing them all?

I found about six roads that needed walking, plus lots of possibles - for example, cul-de-sacs that might allow an exit on foot. Working out how to link all of these into a circular(ish) walk was a challenge!

Anyway, here's the resulting track for today - and I can now claim to have walked every road in my nearest town!    (I'm allowing myself to skip some short dead-ends for now, but I intend to get around to them too.)



The walk was 17.24 miles in all and I reckon I ticked off no more than 1 mile of previously untrodden roads. But it had to be done.

Below is the final map. I ought to explain that the areas in Seasalter and Swalecliffe that I haven't covered are holiday parks and I draw the line at walking around those!



Although I've focused on Whitstable here, I've also been working on Herne Bay about 5 miles to the east, Canterbury about 7 miles south, and Faversham about 10 miles west. I walk through these towns (and city) regularly on my local walks and I've been taking as many different routes through them as I can... 

[sunnydale]

I’ve walked just about everywhere in Bakewell, although it’s a relatively small town. I’m still discovering interesting bits & I've lived here 18 years now!