To live in a walkable city is a very fortunate thing, as those
who live in some of the finest — Boston, New York, and Washington
to name a few — know all too well. As our nation becomes more
urban, more cities have become walkable, especially in their
business districts, as the sidewalks bustle with people going one
place or another.
Yet as I walk around these urban areas, I generally find myself
struggling to get around those walking ahead of me, even when I’m
not in a hurry. Have you ever thought of the effects that would
ensue if everyone sped up their walk just a little bit?
The average person walks about two to three miles per hour. But
based on the people I see on the streets here in our nation’s
capital, I’m going to guess it’s closer to two miles-per-hour for
most. If everyone increased their pace by just two miles per hour
— to a fairly brisk four miles per hour — the results would be
staggering.
For one, our society would become a lot more fit. For a 150
pound person that walks an hour a day, increasing their speed by a
mere two-miles-per hour would mean burning an extra hundred
calories a day. That’s a hundred calories without changing your
diet, and without exercising more. Burning an extra 100 calories a
day will result in a 36,500 calorie reduction over a year, which
means you will lose over 10 pounds! The results are even greater
for those weighing more. If everyone did this, the strains on our
nation’s health system would be weakened, and medical costs would
go down, reducing insurance premiums.
Don’t have time to exercise? A common excuse (trust me, I use it
all the time). But if you simply walk two miles-per-hour faster as
you run your daily errands, you’re not spending any more time. In
fact, you’re saving time.
THAT BRINGS ME to my next point — increased productivity. If
everyone walked two miles-per-hour faster, then you would get
everywhere a great deal sooner and spend less time commuting. If
you normally walk two miles-per-hour, then to walk twenty blocks
would take you an hour. If you increase your speed by a mere two
miles-per-hour, you could walk the same twenty blocks in half the
time — thirty minutes.
This would put America’s workers at their jobs thirty more
minutes a day, which would yield an extra 130 hours of work per
year per worker. This would make the country far more productive.
Or, it could mean an extra 130 hours with your children at home, or
an extra 130 hours watching old movies you enjoy or an extra 130
hours volunteering in the community. Think about the difference you
could make! That is a lot of time to gain for simply picking up
your pace as you go about your daily routine.
All of these calculations do not even include the amount that
walking faster would increase traffic-flow — which would also have
an effect on time and productivity. The person walking at two
miles-per-hour across a four-lane highway (approximately 40 feet)
takes a little over thirteen and a half seconds to get across the
street. As he or she saunters across the street, a line of cars
wait to turn right on red. If that same pedestrian walked just two
miles-per-hour faster, then he or she could cross the street in 6.8
seconds — half the time. In that time, almost three cars going
just ten miles per hour could make it through the light. That is
three more cars that can go while the light is green, and three
more cars ahead of you that are out of your way. Such a minuscule
number across every crosswalk in a city could make an enormous
difference. This would mean even drivers’ commutes are shorter,
making them more productive and giving them more time.
IF EVERYONE WOULD walk just two miles-per-hour faster as they go
about their daily routine, the world would be a very different
place. Now certainly not everyone walks twenty blocks a day, though
throughout the course of your day, twenty blocks is not an unusual
distance. But while some don’t walk that far, some walk much
further. Many people here in our nation’s capital walk more than
ten blocks each way to work — myself included — which is twenty
blocks a day before you include their walk to lunch, to the
convenience store, and to surrounding meetings.
So next time you’re sauntering along, wondering why you can’t
lose weight and where all the time in the day goes, pick up your
pace. Just a little bit. If everyone does it, it will be truly
remarkable.
