2009-10-13

Zombies are People Too!

[A Zombie-American promoting car-free streets in George Romero's famous 1968 documentary on the subject.]


The Zombie Pub Crawl, which took place this weekend*, is a time honored tradition of celebrating for good sidewalk and street planning in Minneapolis.

It's a well-known fact that Zombies, re-animated human corpses, are mindless. They tend to move, slowly and stumbingly, in the vague general direction of brains, on which they feed.

What isn't well known is that, because of their slow-moving and heedless perambulation, Zombies make the perfect gauge of good sidewalk and neighborhood design. They wander aimlessly, and don't hesitate to stumble into the street. Being already dead, getting run over isn't a big concern for a zombie. So, if they can travel from pub to pub in search of brains without getting run down by speeding drivers, anyone can!

So, wherever Zombies dare not fear to tread, you can be sure that those streets have excellent sidewalks. Northeast Minneapolis, and (this year) Cedar-Riverside: if Zombies can walk there, mindlessly dragging their heels through the neighborhood, you can be sure that cell-phone talkers, children, old folks, and the distracted daydreamers can also walk these streets without fear of getting run down by a speeding driver. You can be sure that these streets are the most walkable, stumble-able, brain-dead-able, Zombie-friendly sidewalks in the Twin Cities. Thanks again, Zombies, for demonstrating good walking behavior in Minneapolis!



[Have you ever seen a Zombie drive a car?]


Update: It occurs to me that the ZPC is the pedestrian equivalent of the Critical Mass Bike Ride.


*It's a good thing Zombies, being already dead, have no need for the warmth of the sun. This year was quite cold (or so I hear).