Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
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Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
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Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#2Doesn't it seem like somewhere out there is a company with a lot of data on people's walking speed, which could just bury these studies with orders of magnitude more data? Some smartphone app or similar device for counting steps, or maybe just Google Maps when you're using the pedestrian option to plot your path.
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#3In Canary Wharf, being a well off part of London, the speed of walking was traditionally quite quick, however there has been a prolonged yet steady slow down. It could easily be a spurious factor but it feels like it goes hand in hand with the trend towards hiring more pliant, less imaginative people!
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#4Doesn't it seem like somewhere out there is a company with a lot of data on people's walking speed, which could just bury these studies with orders of magnitude more data? Some smartphone app or similar device for counting steps, or maybe just Google Maps when you're using the pedestrian option to plot your path.
FitBit is one of them
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#5OT, but a sentence that struck me as weird:
> Interestingly, Wiseman clocked some of the quickest feet in Singapore, China, and Brazil — perhaps a reflection of these rising economies.
Sure, China can obviously be considered rising. Brazil; sure why not? But Singapore? That economy already rose a long time ago. The have one of the highest GDP PPP per capita in the world and have reached convergence. How odd.
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#6They speculate about all sorts of factors, such as sensory overload and the monetary value of time, trying to tease them apart, while ignoring danger.
Right at the top of the article, the photo of rapidly walking people is taken on London Bridge. That is where people were run down in 2017. Of course people would want to get through that area as fast as possible.
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#7I don’t buy this. It seems they’ve tested one potential explanation only, GDP. What about the size of the city per se or mean walking distant between objects? As example: Berlin is a city which is not compact and quite spread out. What if people just need to walk quicker there to make it to work on time? I am not saying this is true. But I want to make a point that you could come up with other things to test easily.
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#8I'm surprised they don't mention the obvious practical reason. I walk faster when I'm in the city because I have farther to go.
Last week, I was working in a smaller city 30 miles out. So I drove, and out in the suburbs, I can park pretty close to where I'm going.
Today, I was working in the city, a mile from home. At that distance, there's a good chance I wouldn't be able to find parking any closer to where I'm going! So I walk, and that's a decent amount of ground to cover.
Smaller city means better parking, so you don't need to walk as far. When you get really small (like Psychro), things are naturally close enough together you don't need to walk far at all.
I'd look not just at how long it takes people to cover 50 feet, but the starting/ending points for their entire trips. I bet when people take optimal modes of transportation for their routes, their trips simply require more walking in bigger cities.
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#9They speculate about all sorts of factors, such as sensory overload and the monetary value of time, trying to tease them apart, while ignoring danger. Right at the top of the article, the photo of rapidly walking people is taken on London Bridge. That is where people were run down in 2017. Of course people would want to get through that area as fast as possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_London_Bridge_attack
The same didn't happen during the IRA campaigns. Are you supposing that the people of London are scared ? I'm fairly sure that people in London walk fast as they have busy lives, not because they think walking fast will increase their likelihood of survival. Perhaps the behaviour you describe is more US centric?
Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)
#10I'm surprised they don't mention the obvious practical reason. I walk faster when I'm in the city because I have farther to go. Last week, I was working in a smaller city 30 miles out. So I drove, and out in the suburbs, I can park pretty close to where I'm going. Today, I was working in the city, a mile from home. At that distance, there's a good chance I wouldn't be able to find parking any closer to where I'm goin…
> I'm surprised they don't mention the obvious practical reason. I walk faster when I'm in the city because I have farther to go.
I tend to walk slower when I'm going a longer distance because I want to avoid arriving at my destination drenched in sweat, although I suppose this could be driven partially by the fact that I live in a tropical city (Hong Kong).