Bend, Oregon —

For being such a self-proclaimed active outdoor culture, Bend is remarkably unfamiliar with pedestrianism.

Every day that I walk any distance I encounter a motorist who freezes at the sight of me, stopping in the middle of traffic, in almost any situation where I am standing at roadside.

Let's disregard for now the incompetence of that kind of driving. And maybe it's just one of those weird little cultural manifestations that cannot be explained.

I know how to cross a street. Anybody who knows how to walk - and walks - knows how to cross a street. Motorists in Bend do not suspect that I might know how to do that. I suspect that Bendites really do not walk, ergo we are not an active outdoor culture.