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Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

citylab.com

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Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#41

Post by Broken_Hippo »

benj111 wrote: post #25
ken wrote: post #8

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. 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…

"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" Would you drive, just to travel a mile? Barely seems worth it in the best case. That's without getting into the environmental and social issues.

Would you drive, just to travel a mile? Barely seems worth it in the best case.

The bigger issue is that the "best case" is more brought by luck than anything. I've lived plenty of places where walking that mile wasn't actually feasible. No sidewalks, for example. Work that expects employees to arrive to work clean and dry, no matter the weather. Work that provides little space to store winter gear. Sometimes, the drive is seriously shorter: You might be driving a mile, but they don't allow walking on those roads, so the walk is a mile and a half.

The social issues are important things to consider depending on where you live, as they might make it nearly impossible to walk without police harassment. Especially at 2am.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#43

Post by Reason077 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #36
benj111 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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" Would you drive, just to travel a mile? Barely seems worth it in the best case. That's without getting into the environmental and social issues.

It used to amaze me when I walked my children to school. We would pass people getting in their car to avoid walking half a mile. I suspect a lot of the time they don't even think about it, it's just automatic.

My Dad will get in his car and drive across a parking lot rather than walk it, even though it takes longer. He'll sometimes wait for several minutes for someone to leave in their car rather than face a 45 second walk across a parking lot. He acknowledges the irrationality of this behaviour when I tease him about it, but he won't change.

On the other hand, he keeps fit, enjoys walking recreationally and happily walks for miles when hiking, golfing, or fishing. But he'll drive his car as close as possible to the start of the trail first.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#44

Post by Reason077 »

burfog wrote: post #6

They 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

Footways on all the major bridges in London are now protected by barriers that prevent vehicles entering the pedestrian area.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#46

Post by arandr0x »

It would be interesting to relate this to how stimulating the environment is. I walk fast in cities because doing so lets my brain "compress" the information from the never ending shop windows, people yelling, people walking, cars honking, people asking for money, ambient music, street names, landmarks, camera flashes etc. I also walk very fast in malls for this reason. (A correlate is --yes-- I actually walk slower at night, because there is more to pay attention to at night.) It's possible that fast walking is an adaptation to decrease the neurological load from the stimuli economic activity generates (or even a consequence of the fact that exciting things prime the brain towards moving and make physical action more desirable), and not a consequence of "how much your time is worth".

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#47

Post by sonnyblarney »

They are more likely to be commuters, have jobs and need to be somewhere.

I'm originally from a small town and everything is slower there, not just walking.

Time is processed differently.

Also - consider if they did the same measurement in a city, but out in the burbs? I'll be you find most people not so fast.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#48

Post by ken »

benj111 wrote: post #25
ken wrote: post #8

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. 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…

"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" Would you drive, just to travel a mile? Barely seems worth it in the best case. That's without getting into the environmental and social issues.

I recall that statement was much easier to make back when my job was sitting in a chair all day. :-)

I am guilty of driving just to travel a mile, on occasion. When you do physical labor, have to carry your own tools, go to work before sunrise, and may not be done until well after midnight, it's really nice to know that when you get off shift at 3am you'll be able to hit the pillow 10 minutes later.

The bus sounds like nice solution, but it's more expensive ... and it shuts down entirely for the 4 hours that I'd need it most (1am-5am).

BTW, that's one of the major problems with public transit around Seattle. Rent is terrible, traffic is terrible, parking is terrible, and it's easy to say "so just take the bus", but we don't run the bus at hours when a lot of blue-collar workers need it.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#49

Post by setr »

benj111 wrote: post #31
setr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If parking were easily available & free, then whats the downside? 15 min + a bit of effort versus 5 min and no effort... and you have the convenience of having a car nearby for your next thing (eg lunch). The choice seems obvious to me.

That 15 minute walk will always take 15 minutes, whereas that 5 minute drive may turn out to be a 15 minute space hunt, so you still have to set off at the same time. So unless you're travelling somewhere afterwards, where's the upside?

One of my favorite ideas about selecting a major for college is that, if you don’t know what you want to do, you should select the option that gives the most freedom for when you do decide.

Eg a math major can transfer to just about any engineering field with little cost, but its harder to go from say CS to a math major. Philosophy might apply to anything, while art history is quite limited in application elsewhere.

In the same fashion, you should not ask “unless you’re travelling elsewhere”, but rather, “unless you’re planning not to travel elsewhere”; the car gives you both options. You’ve essentially not made a decision regarding travel. Walking otoh does make a decision on the matter (at 15 minutes extra, outside lunch is less appealing; at 20-30, its likely unviable).

Thus, in this particular regard, driving needs no justification, but walking does.

Re: Why People in Cities Walk Fast (2012)

#50

Post by api »

burfog wrote: post #17

Muggers consistently choose targets based on how they walk. This is shown to be the case even if other physical information is hidden during the research: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131104-how-muggers-size-up... To avoid attack, move with "synchrony and energy", with purpose. The city people are doing exactly this.

I was told more or less this many years ago by a friend who grew up in rough neighborhoods. Paraphrasing: "When you walk around in the ghetto just walk like you're packing heat in your jacket." Nobody messed with me. I guess it's science.
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