Walking
Every day, more people discover walking as an easy way to get moving. Did you know that
– 30 minutes of daily walking lowers the risk for diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, cancer and much more.
– Kids walking to school perform better than when getting rides.
– Home prices in walkable neighborhoods increase faster than others.
– Commerce flourish where people walk.
There are an overwhelming amount of information on the benefits of walking for you as an individual and for society. The two videos below condense the information very well and explain why you need to walk and how it all is interlaced:
“The benefits of walking are so good, they are hard to believe”. Listen to Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George C. Halvorson explain the benefits of walking in a 6 minute video.
Urbanist Jeff Speck explains in his TED talk “how America can be more economically resilient, how America can be healthier and how America can be more environmentally sustainable”. You’ll be surprised about how a walkable infrastructure improves health, quality of life and the local economy and how it is all correlated!
Jeff mentions that Portland, Oregon is far ahead of other cities in the US on planning around people, but there is activities in many places. Learn about what’s going on in Oklahoma City, New York, Dallas and Chicago and more generally with redevelopment of urban centers.
As mentioned in the intro, kids who walk to school perform better than when getting rides. Here are the results of some studies:
– Let kids walk to school by University of Buffalo medical school and
– Exercise before school improves concentration in the class room, a joint study by researchers at the universities in Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark, also reported by the Atlantic Cities.
– Check out these fascinating MRI scans by the University of Illinois of kids’ brains after sitting still and walking for 20 minutes respectively!
If your kid’s school doesn’t have a walk-to-school program, consider organizing one!
Walking is good, however, when dusk comes around, the risk of fatal pedestrian-vehicle accidents increases significantly. In the Scandinavian countries, pedestrian reflectors have saved lives for over 40 year. If you are looking for thoughtful and useful giveaways, check out our American-made logo reflectors! Together we can make a difference and we hope you want to join us.
The funflector team
