opusculus

That would do it. It's like the exact opposite for me. See, I grew up in southwest Minneapolis, on creekfront property, within walking distance of both a park and several lakes, all of which have both walking paths and bike paths all around them. it would be strange to grow up in a neighborhood like that and not do a lot of biking and walking. The more suburban areas of Minneapolis are great for walking, and about the only bad place for riding bikes is downtown where bikes have to use a special bike lane in the street because the sidewalks are off-limits. I'm much less familiar with St. Paul, but while downtown St. Paul is also not particularly conducive to bike riding, it's not bad for walking. This probably due largely to the large public transit system the Twin Cities have. A couple hundred bus routes and plenty of sidewalk plus expensive parking ramps in downtown = more people walking, biking, and busing. I've seen areas in various suburbs that lack in sidewalk, though, and those would . . . probably suck for walking/biking depending on how much traffic they get.