Walking!

Many of you know that my family is full of "step monsters", as my uncle likes to call us. My mother, 2 of my aunts, my grandmother, and both of my sisters wear pedometers. While that may not seem totally out of the ordinary, we also keep track of our step progress in a shared spreadsheet on Google docs. Naturally, when an article is about walking I read it. These articles are not actually about walking as a health practice or anything related to pedometers, but they are still very interesting.

First there is an article about pedestrian patterns in the world. It is interesting to hear that cultures have vastly different behaviors in groups of pedestrians. This article, from "The Atlantic Cities" (one of my new favorite transportation related blogs), talks about how Indians slow down slower when approaching a crowd than do Germans, probably because of their smaller personal bubbles. The idea that 70% of people walk in groups is also very interesting from a pedestrian's point of view. I know when I'm walking, I usually walk faster than most people and get stuck behind groups of people all the time. I, of course, slow down as I get closer to them and find a gap to run around them (yes... I feel like I'm running even though I'm actually not most of the time). These groups of people definitely change my personal walking patterns, and I am sure they change everyone else's as well. I'm not saying that no one should walk in groups, I love walking with friends, and talking to them, but it does congest the sidewalk. However, the article points out that it is important to study these behaviors for safety reasons at large gatherings, and possible evacuation procedures.

The other articles I found recently brought memories back of a topic from a few of my classes last semester. Drunk walking, which is technically the right thing to do when you're drunk, is actually statistically more dangerous than drunk driving! The article in Good Magazine states that 1/3 of pedestrian fatalities happen when the pedestrian is drunk, and Levitt, a Freakonomics contributor, states that drunk walking is 8 times more dangerous than drunk driving, at least for the drunk person. While Levitt argues that drunks should probably drive because more people die from drunk walking, I feel that the issue is more about external costs rather than personal costs. You can risk your own life, but getting behind the wheel and risking the lives of others might be more harmful, however.. I've also never killed someone who crossed unsafely in front of me, which I'm sure also has terrible emotional effects. Both of these articles bring up an important point of safety in general. We need to be aware of the safety implications of our actions not only as drivers, but as pedestrians.


Similarly, I posted on my Google+ page an article about pedestrian safety signs in the city of Chicago. These seem to be targeted at pedestrians by placement but drivers by content. I think both parties need to be aware about the safety requirements of pedestrians in the city, but maybe we need to do a better job at reaching out to drivers.....

R