Street Cred

In the song Out In the Street, Bruce Springsteen sings, When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I walk the way I wanna walk. When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I talk the way I wanna talk. For most modern day Americans, walking the way they wanna walk means walking quickly and talking the way they wanna talk is limited to muttering under their breath. I’m no exception. On the rare occasion when a stranger tries to make conversation, I point to the Airpods in my ears and say, oh oh oh oh oh No. But such attempts at discourse are becoming less common. According to an interesting new study that applied AI to video footage, “American ambulators walked faster and schmoozed less than they used to. They seemed to be having fewer of the informal encounters that undergird civil society and strengthen urban economies.” Bloomberg City Lab (Gift Article): What Happened to Hanging Out on the Street? The researchers compared video data from three decades apart in locations across four cities. “At each site, pedestrians walked faster in 2010 than they had in 1980, by an average of 15%. Time spent lingering in public spaces declined by roughly half, and fewer people were forming groups. In general, walkers appeared more atomized and rushed in 2010 than they had a generation before.” Interestingly, the Springsteen song referenced above came out in 1980. In 2010, Bruce may have had different lyrics than, When I’m out in the street, girl, Well, I never feel alone, When I’m out in the street, girl, In the crowd I feel at home. I’m no songwriter, but for the updated version, the word iPhone would rhyme pretty well in there…