Just thirty minutes north of the bustling of Atlanta sits the quaint suburb of Marietta. Everything here is within driving distance—I have over ten grocery store options, my elementary, middle, and high school, and more, all within a ten-minute radius of my house. If I’m feeling adventurous, no problem, I can drive past a grass field or two to neighboring cities.
When I remember to look out at my surroundings from whatever automobile I’m in, I see the hub for the county bus system, CobbLinc. The asphalt here is graying, dandelions sprouting from cracks to no end. The bus-stops, if I ever do see one, rarely have people waiting at them. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) shares similar peculiarities, with its use in practice being to move people between at most three locations.
Every once in a while, my friends and I will take on the challenge of trying to get around Marietta by walking. It’s always a refreshing yet unsettling experience when you’re so used to seeing everything from a slightly higher elevation and passing through the city at a much faster speed. On foot, everything is bigger. The billboards and store signs that looked no larger than a post-it note from afar are actually as big as my car and are sitting atop a three-story tall metal pole. Crossing any road is an ordeal of its own, taking almost half a minute to speed-walk past the weird stares drivers give the occasional pedestrians. The nearest hangout spot from my high school is a gigantic Target with a two-story parking garage. It’s a 30-minute walk from the back exit of my school.
Marietta wasn’t built for our feet. The maze of higher-speed local roadways has made driving a personal vehicle the default means of getting around and has necessitated the massive parking lots that stretch so far between the sidewalks and storefronts that crossing these black tops is an entirely new journey.
Safe from the commercial areas of the city, single homes and subdivisions are tucked away between bunches of oak and pine trees. The sidewalks here are better maintained, the cars drive slower, and locals on a jog with their pet dogs are a common sight. On every new walk around the neighborhood, the winding roads lined with wood-paneled ranch homes flaunt a new three-story stone castle, proudly standing behind a fountain and iron gates.
Marietta is part of the sprawling city of the forest, with new subdivisions being built up from the once barren grass fields I drove by years ago. While the wayfarer lifestyle is not as feasible as other towns, the way this place has grown to embrace the use of personal vehicles has allowed for new lengths of convenience that may not have otherwise been possible.
- Google Street View of the Big Chicken
- Subdivisions in Marietta
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