In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration

by Shane O'Mara

As we’ve seen throughout this book, walking itself is an activity that is key to so many aspects of individual lives and societies. Walking should be central to policymakers, medical professionals and town planners. Walkers everywhere need a charter that is at the foundation of our communities. At its core this charter needs some straightforward principles and to have its provisions legally implemented. Earlier I suggested the acronym EASE as a tool for our town planners and architects (walking in our towns and cities should be easy, accessible, safe and enjoyable). Design principles built around EASE will increase the quality of all our lives. This is something we can both aspire to and convert into actual policy if politicians know that your vote depends on their support for a walker’s charter. The principles of this charter need to be translated into ‘on the ground’ designs – not as an afterthought – but as the central design component. The message should be straightforward: walking is good for you. But we humans are also a little bit lazy and resistant to messages which ask us to re-evaluate our world views. Deep policy documents are of use when attempting to argue or bolster a case.16 To ensure change, the best methods are evidence-based appeals to reality and truth, within the context of a succinct story that adds to or coheres with values that the listener already has. However, if mere information provision was enough, there would be no anti-vaccination campaigns, t...