Walking for sustainability and health
Improve your well-being and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a few simple steps.
It seems that we’ve had quite a few new folks to sign up for The Green Dispatch in the last week or so. Welcome to you all! I hope you find this newsletter both informative and enjoyable. And hello to all you old-timers who have been with us for a while. I’m glad to see you coming back.
In September 2023, I wrote about the benefits that cycling has for the environment and the steps that many municipalities and governments are taking to make cycling accessible and safe. Today, I want to talk about something even more fundamental: walking. It’s eco-friendly, and you don’t have to pump up your tires to do it.
Walking: a good thing to do
Most everyone likes a good walk, even if it’s just a short jaunt around the neighborhood. Spending 15 or 20 minutes strolling a few blocks close to one’s home is a great way to clear the mind, lift one’s spirits, and maybe see a friendly face or two.
For me, I’ve always tried to live in neighborhoods conducive to walking. I like having a corner grocery store, so I don’t have to drive to the supermarket to pick up a quart of milk or that one thing—that bit of sour cream or the rutabaga—that I forgot to pick up earlier for tonight’s dinner. I like having tree-shaded sidewalks on hot sunny days, and I love to hear birds chirping and singing.
Presently, my wife and I live in a wonderful neighborhood. Restaurants, cafes, clothing stores, a bookstore, even a record store are within a few blocks. A neighborhood grocery store is about five blocks away. For me, the icing on the cake is the restaurant/bakery around the corner, where I can get a perfect, fresh sourdough baguette.
Walking is good for the environment
A British study performed in 2019 found that almost 42 percent of the short car trips (three miles or fewer) of residents of the seaside city of Cardiff could be undertaken on foot or bike. If the individuals in the study switched from cars to walking, each person’s emissions would be reduced by more than six pounds of CO2 per week. That may not sound like much, but if you expand that to other cities besides Cardiff to the rest of England, to France, Europe, and to the rest of the world, those small steps start to add up.
Indeed, according to Project Drawdown, a nonprofit that researches climate change solutions, even if more walkable cities increase our getting around on foot by just five percent, we would save the equivalent of 2.8 to 3.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide from being released into our atmosphere every year.
Walking the walk
Germany is taking this climate solution very seriously. Their transportation officials are implementing a comprehensive national walking strategy to encourage people to walk more and make pedestrian traffic safer and accessible. To achieve a more walkable Germany, they are embedding walking into municipal planning laws, restricting inner-city speed limits to about 18 mph, setting minimum standards for footpaths, as well as instituting other measures.
Other places around the world are also making cities more walkable. Barcelona developed “superblocks,” restricting vehicular traffic in nine-block grids that enable city residents to reclaim urban spaces and create “mini-villages.” Seattle has set the goal of becoming a “15-minute city,” in which residents are only a 15-minute walk, bike, or bus ride from work, school, or other destinations. People in Sweden are going even further, participating in efforts to create dense “one-minute cities,” where walking is emphasized. London has given itself the goal of becoming the world’s most walkable city.
Yes, but how to get people to choose walking?
In a paper published last month in the journal Sustainability, two researchers in Italy looked at what encourages folks to travel on foot. They set up an on-line questionnaire asking everything from people’s preference for nighttime lighting to ease of crossing intersections. Their 526 respondents told them the obvious. People don’t want crumbling or uneven pavement. Safety is also important, so things like the speed of traffic on the street make a big difference. People want the routes they walk to be stimulating and pleasant; walkers will choose to travel longer routes if they are more pleasing.
Walking has health benefits, too.
A recent study found that daily walking, even as little as a brisk ten-minute jaunt, improved sleep in most adults. Other research found walking also decreased depression in adults by 18 to 25 percent.
Diabetics who walked just two hours a week had a 39 percent lower mortality rate than sedentary diabetics and as much as 95 percent lower for those who walked three to four hours a week. Diabetics who said their heart rates increased and who got a bit winded during their walks benefitted the most.
Researchers in Ontario, Canada, affirm what everybody knows already: that folks feel more neighborly when they walk about their neighborhoods. In a paper published in June 2023 in the journal Urban Planning, the research team gave study participants “walking diaries” and used other means to get a sense of the social benefits of walking. They found that most folks walked for physical activity or to “just get out of the house.” People nonetheless appreciated seeing and running into their neighbors. Even when they were busy running errands or getting from point A to point B, seeing and chatting with neighbors was a big plus.
Do you live in a walkable city? What could encourage you to walk more or run more errands or commute on foot? Please click the “Leave a comment” button below.
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My wife and I retired to Superior, Wisconsin a few years ago and live in a very walkable neighborhood. The town was basically built up prior to the 1920s, so it wasn't designed around the automobile.
Interesting article, thanks. I live in Edinburgh, which is a very walkable city.