Alice Kay
OK, I will be upfront – I don’t walk absolutely everywhere. I am lucky enough to live in Greater London after all and have a variety of nearby train and bus routes I can utilise.
Yet, for journeys under three miles, I would hazard a guess that I walk close to 90% of them. And that doesn’t include walks for leisure which can take me roaming twice as far away from home.
Why, you might ask, do I like to walk so much (and why don’t I ever make use of the aforementioned car and bike)? Full disclosure, the car is a slightly temperamental beast nowadays and mostly only used for longer journeys outside London to see family, while the bike has resided at my father’s flat in Cambridge for close to a decade now. One day I will reclaim it.
Back to walking – so why do I do it? Number one: because I can. I’m lucky enough to be fit and healthy and I want to make use of the ability to walk anywhere I fancy for as long as possible. I’m also lucky enough to live in London where pavements, footpaths, and cut-throughs allow pedestrians to travel almost anywhere they want to. I grew up in a tiny village that, although beautiful for nature walks, didn’t have a pavement connecting it to the neighbouring village where my school and friends were. You walked along the 60 mile an hour road at your peril so I just… didn’t. Living in a place like London is a real privilege for a walker, although it may not seem like it at times.
Number two: it’s good for me. We’re all told we need to exercise more and be less sedentary, but if we don’t like the gym, running, or team sports what can we actually do about this? Enter walking. A few miles can equate to the recommended number of daily steps, and even a more leisurely stroll up a hill can get the heartrate up. Beyond the fitness benefits, walking is also good for our wellbeing. Nothing lifts my mood or calms me down better than a good walk, particularly if there’s a pleasant destination (such as a pub) at the other end.
Number three: It’s actually more efficient than you might think. Of course, over a long distance a car or bike would smoke me for speed. But at shorter distances and in areas where traffic is dense there can be little in it between travelling in a car and travelling on foot. A big part of my approach is to build walking into my daily commute or while I run errands such as doing the food shop.
The former habit arose when I was on a low salary and my work was just over two miles away – walking there and back each day saved me a great deal of money on Tube or bus fares. The habit has stuck and I still build a decent walk into my current commute (although I do now also use public transport). I also make a game out of ticking off my errands on foot – how can I make an efficient walking loop while visiting all of the places I need to, and how many items that I need to buy can fit into a couple of tote bags and a rucksack (the answer: a lot). It also reduces the stress (and cost) of having to find a parking spot near a high street or having to move your car to get to each place you need to visit. And you might think that the time sink is greater than driving, but it hasn’t been wasted time – you’ve run your errands or done the food shop while being active, so you don’t now need to set aside more time specifically for exercise.
This may all seem very obvious to some readers, but I am constantly surprised at how often the concept of walking somewhere doesn’t occur to many people in London. I don’t want to lecture people for instinctively jumping into their car because it appears easier or more efficient to do so. Instead, I’d like to encourage people to really think about the journey they are making and ask themselves the question: “Could I walk it instead?”