People are walking 10 percent more quickly than a decade ago. Thousands of pedestrians were secretly timed in city centers and Singapore’s residents were found to be the most swift. Some were clocked as being the quickest when leaving at lunch time from a Singapore private bank and walking to a restaurant about a mile away. Copenhagen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen) and Madrid follow the Singaporeans as being swift walkers. However, the research found that walking faster did not necessarily mean people are getting healthier, take for example those Singaporeans leaving the bank for the restaurant, they were also noted for eating a high-cholesterol lunch and eating just as fast as they walked.
These walking results provided a significant insight into the physical and social health of a city. At one level, walking quickly is a very good thing, but only if it’s a way of life. If you are walking simply to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, then it goes with a whole load of other behaviours that are not quite so good for you. As people speed, it’s not the stress, it’s the result of not eating properly, exercising or seeing friends or family. It can lead to all kinds of things, like heart disease or heart attacks.
A fast pace of life was found to be driven to some extent by all our new and latest technology. Communications are getting faster and faster. We are constantly in touch with each other and getting back to people as quickly as we can and that’s minutes, not hours. That’s making us think that everything has to happen now. Singapore showed a 30 percent increase, making it the most frenetic city in the study. So, Singaporeans, who walk fast to all their appointment and any of their other many activities, might just be surprised to find out at their next doctors appointment that they have high blood pressure or the beginnings of heart disease.