5 ms·

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

by ken 8y ago

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 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.

culturestate 8y ago
> 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).
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > I suppose this could be driven partially by the fact that I live in a tropical city (Hong Kong). Most likely it is. I live in Poland, and there I can walk very fast without visibly sweating, except on the hottest days of the summer, and during winter iff I wear too thick clothes. Been to HK/Shenzhen in early winter, and what you have there then seems equivalent to our summers :).
- nicolas_t 8y ago
  I also live in Hong Kong and I did notice that people seem to walk faster in Winter than Summer :) I do think that the weather is a factor that should be studied... Another factor is location, I've found that people walk faster in Central than in other places but that might follow their theory about money.
benj111 8y ago
"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.
- Broken_Hippo 8y ago
  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.
- setr 8y ago
  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.
  - SirHound 8y ago
    Health
  - benj111 8y ago
    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?
    - setr 8y ago
      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.

by ken 8y ago

culturestate 8y ago

> 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).

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> I suppose this could be driven partially by the fact that I live in a tropical city (Hong Kong). Most likely it is. I live in Poland, and there I can walk very fast without visibly sweating, except on the hottest days of the summer, and during winter iff I wear too thick clothes. Been to HK/Shenzhen in early winter, and what you have there then seems equivalent to our summers :).
nicolas_t 8y ago
I also live in Hong Kong and I did notice that people seem to walk faster in Winter than Summer :) I do think that the weather is a factor that should be studied... Another factor is location, I've found that people walk faster in Central than in other places but that might follow their theory about money.

benj111 8y ago

"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.

Broken_Hippo 8y ago
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.
setr 8y ago
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.
- SirHound 8y ago
  Health
- benj111 8y ago
  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?
  - setr 8y ago
    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.