When you walk (or cycle), you make decisions.

They might be the wrong decisions, but they're decisions all the same.

When you're on public transport (and especially when it's going slowly), you have two decisions: stay on, or get off. When you're waiting for public transport, you have three decisions: get on the next one, wait a little longer, or walk.

Not a lot of choice.

When you're walking, you have many, many choices. Firstly, you aren't limited to a one-dimensional route, going from place A to place B via C, D, E, F and G. If you want to have a sly look in that wedding shop, you can drift that little bit closer. And closer. You can put your head against the window and dream. You can walk straight in.

Or not, if you don't want to. But you don't have a choice on the bus.

Or you're waiting in the back of the bus, in traffic. You've got to get to another bus, across town, in half an hour, or you're walking home. And an forced walk is no fun indeed.

The question is: who will get there first: you, or the bus? You'll end up racing the bus: you pottering along at a steady pace, the bus moving in fits and starts with the traffic. Who'll get there first?

But you can take a short cut. Something the bus can't do. Or you can take what you think is going to be a short cut.

You can buy the Big Issue. You can grab a McDonalds milkshake. You can run, walk, jog, or do that stupid looking worm move from WWF.

You can stop. You can turn back. You can't do that on a bus or a train.

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