Frequent walking: from personal health to sustainable mobility

For his thesis, Derek Christie studied people who walk outdoors for more than one hour per day. Little research has been done into these frequent walkers, who could nevertheless help to shape public policies on mobility. Some Swiss health insurance companies offer incentives to encourage people to walk 10,000 steps a day. This works out to about seven kilometers and over an hour of walking a day, in addition to any steps taken indoors. For most people, their already busy schedules mean it is not easy to find extra time to go walking, even if the steps do not have to be taken all in one go and can be broken down into 10- to 30-minute bouts. For his thesis, Derek Christie, a researcher in EPFL's Urban Sociology Laboratory, spoke to over 70 of these frequent walkers in the Lake Geneva region. He looked at how these men and women organize their time, what they get out of so much walking, why they do it, and whether their behaviour might herald a change towards more sustainable mobility practices. First of all, Derek Christie's thesis, which he presented on 20 April 2018, shows that regular walking is achievable for most people without a disability. To get started, you just need to be organized and highly motivated. From there, it's possible get into a routine in which walking becomes part of your daily life. Most of the people he spoke to had begun frequent walking because of a particular event or in the context of a change in lifestyle - similar to what has been observed in people who give up smoking. The use of a pedometer, either mechanical or on a smartphone, often played a decisive role. Other triggers included Nordic walking, health problems (particularly cardiovascular issues) and the desire to lose weight. A simply way of improving one's well-being