One of the things that we really know little about are the ways and reasons that people think about, or go, to various parts of the community. If we understood appeals and turnoffs better, if we knew more about why people are or are not going places, to see or not see other people, we'd learn so much about how business and government could serve them better.
Rather than complain about Weaver Street construction in Carrboro, let's use it as a way to understand opportunities.
Rather than just watch a lot of people on fairly rare occasions at Southern Community Park in Chapel Hill, let's focus on why they are there, how they come, whether they stop en route, and what bothers them, what interests them and what could be better.
Just to pick two examples.
Employing some people just to ask questions and write about responses would be a nice job for them and a big help to everyone else who makes any sort of decision from walking or driving to buying or selling everything from an office building to a blueberry.
Another example. Some people are avid about riding bicycles in the area. That's great. But how much shopping or other patronizing of stores and services do they do on their bikes? Do we need heavier duty transport bikes either to be pedaled or fueled by solar electric? Those sorts of thinking and asking analyses never seem to happen, or at least I never seen them reported.
In Nice, where I also live, we have rental electric cars and bikes provided by the City at an affordable rate. That's an idea worth studying for here too.
