The Pedestrian is a
short story published in
1951 and written by
Ray Bradbury after he discovered that
it is against the law to walk in Los Angeles.
The story deals with Leonard Mead, a writer, who simply goes for a stroll in the not-too-distant future. Walking on empty streets, he watches the blue grey flickering lights of televisions in each window of every house he passes. When he is stopped by a police patrol, they ask him what he is doing; they ask him if he is lost, or if his television is broken. Upon discovering he is a writer, they note 'unemployed' in their logbook and cart him away.
This story is based on an experience Bradbury had in Los Angeles when he went for a walk, and was stopped by police who thought that was a little crazy. This is the introduction Bradbury gave when the story was made into a short film on Ray Bradbury Theatre in 1989:
"Tennis shoes, to remind me of what. The first nights of summer when as a boy I ran in the cool grass, or later walking at night being stopped by police who were suspicious of the only one walking for miles and miles. Upset with this encounter with the law what else could I do but write about shoes, and night, and walking as a criminal in some future year in a story called The Pedestrian."