If you’re struggling to walk more, know that it’s not necessarily a failure of willpower. Planners designed American cities not just to prioritize the car, but to impede the pedestrian — too few sidewalks, fat thoroughfares slicing up neighborhoods, sprawling parking lots instead of parks. Yet study after study outlines the abundant mental and physical health benefits of simply putting one foot in front of the other, especially for older adults and those with disabilities who can’t manage vigorous exercise like running. And that’s to say nothing of the climate benefits of walking more and driving less.
It’s reasonable to assume that if cities made themselves more walkable, with footbridges and safer sidewalks and intersections, that it would encourage people to stroll more. “We all have busy lives, and our behaviors are often very much shaped by the environment in which we work, live, and play,” said Karen Lee, a public health researcher at the University of Alberta. “If it’s easy to do something, generally speaking, you’re going to do it more, and you’re likely going to maintain it for longer.”
But quantifying the influence of walkability on walking rates has been challenging. To that end, researchers tapped into a huge dataset of more than 5,400 users of the activity-tracking app Azumio Argus to see what happened when those people moved from cities with low walkability scores to those with high scores, or the other way around. Combined, these folks relocated nearly 7,500 times between 1,600 cities across the United States: For instance, they may have moved from Dallas, with a score of 45, to Chicago, with a score of 78.
The impact of urban walkability was dramatic. On average, people logged 5,574 steps each day, but that jumped by 1,100 steps if they moved from a low-walkability place to a high-walkability one — the equivalent of 11 extra minutes of ambling each day. In an intriguing bit of symmetry, people moving in the other direction reduced their walking by a similar amount. Folks moving in and out of the exceptionally walkable New York City (score of 89) showed an even more dramatic gain or loss of 1,400 steps daily.
The symmetry in steps gained or lost with each move shows the trend isn’t about lifestyle choices, but the influence of the urban habitat itself. “The absolute key was to create this natural experiment, to observe the same person in multiple different environments,” said Tim Althoff, a computer scientist at the University of Washington and lead author of a new paper describing the findings in the journal Nature. “That really gave us strong evidence that it’s not just personal context, but that it’s also the environment that impacts how much you walk.”
So what is walkability, exactly? Simply put, it’s a measurement of how easily you can get to essential places by foot. If you can do all your daily errands without a car, you’re likely living somewhere with a score between 90 and 100. Between 70 and 89, it’s most of your errands on foot, and between 50 and 69, some of them. (You can find your neighborhood’s score here.)
Ideally, an area should be packed with schools, restaurants, parks, and shops, so a critical determinant here is density. While Dallas has a walkability score of 45 in part because it sprawls, NYC boasts an 89 because 8.5 million people live in dense housing surrounded by all manner of amenities. But the Big Apple also provides a vast network of sidewalks and other infrastructure that facilitate the movement of people hoofing it, which also makes it easier for people with disabilities to get around. “Investing in sidewalks, safe intersections, and mixed-use zoning that puts parks and shops closer to homes isn’t just an amenity,” Althoff said. “It’s a direct investment in the long-term health of your citizens.”
Big cities aren’t unique in their walkability, though. Any community can at least have a walkable core — think of the quaint towns of the U.S. heartland, where barbershops butt up against grocers and hardware stores. Before the automobile, it was just logistically obvious for residents to make a single trip to the main drag to get all their errands done. But once the car arrived, sprawl took hold and businesses and services were cast out of downtowns. Then big-box stores set up shop in the suburbs and, later, exurbs, with their vast parking lots. That shift came at hidden economic cost: Research shows that walkable streets significantly boost visits to retail shops compared to car-centric areas.
While the built environment might not seem easily changed, cities have several ways of making themselves more pedestrian-friendly. “One is the street itself — calming the traffic, making it easier to cross, reducing the noise and stress and fear that is associated with those types of places,” said Mike McGinn, the former mayor of Seattle (walkability score: 73), who’s now executive director of America Walks, a nonprofit that advocates for walkability.
Another tactic is creating more parks, like in abandoned lots, where people can mosey and avoid cars altogether, and even cultivating smaller roadside green spaces. Planting more trees along sidewalks also provides shade, helping boost walkability in a sweltering summer. These bits of greenery also reduce urban temperatures, mitigate flooding by absorbing stormwater, and support biodiversity, especially pollinating insects. Even better, such spaces can have benches for folks to rest during their walks.
These modifications to neighborhoods encourage residents to get more exercise, consciously or subconsciously. The World Health Organization recommends adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (which includes walking, gardening, and leisurely biking) each week, but a third of people globally are missing that goal. “We know that adhering to these physical activity recommendations is really important for preventing chronic disease, promoting positive mental health, preventing premature mortality,” said Stephanie Prince Ware, a research scientist who studies the built environment and physical activity at the Public Health Agency of Canada and the University of Ottawa but wasn’t involved in the study. “Every movement counts, and the idea is that we want to get people moving as much as they can.”
Indeed, if every city in the U.S. had the same walkability as Chicago, 36 million more Americans would meet guidelines for physical activity, Althoff calculated. “While individual behavior change is important,” Althoff said, “our work shows that creating activity-friendly environments can serve as a powerful complement, making it easier for entire populations to lead healthier lives.”
