Tales From The Road: Walker's Delight
Photo/Brandon Butler
Dianne Bruce
Dianne Bruce
Executive Director,
Edward Street Child Services, Worcester
Residence: Worcester
Average commute time: Five minutes
Mode of commute: Walk
For Dianne Bruce, executive director of Edward Street Child Services on Cedar Street in downtown Worcester, it just doesn’t make sense for her to get to work any other way than walking.
According to Google maps, Bruce lives 469 feet from her office.
If she were to drive, she might have a longer walk getting from her car to her office than her current walk.
Rain or shine, winter or summer, Bruce makes the less-than-five-minute stroll to work.
“The only problem is you don’t have any snow days,” she said.
Bruce is one of the estimated 3 percent of commuters in Worcester County that walk to work, which is just the way she wants it.
She’s lived on Elm Street for more than 15 years and during that time she’s been able to walk to most of her places of employment.
Bruce has a car — a 15-year-old Saturn that has just over 36,000 miles on it. Her bicycle, she said, gets more use than her car.
There’s a simple reason Bruce has made her life so convenient: “I value my time.”
Bruce does most of her errands by walking or riding her bike. From a work perspective, it’s helpful because if she needs need to catch up on some work during a weekend, she easily can.
Worcester could be a more pedestrian-friendly city, she said. There are not enough ramps to allow people in wheelchairs to access the sidewalks. And public transportation — which Bruce said she has never even considered using — suffers from a perception of being unreliable and inconvenient.
But for Bruce, she’s happy being a walker. After all, new shoes are a lot cheaper than new tires.
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