In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration

by Shane O'Mara

AFTERWORD In the course of this book we have travelled back into the depths of evolutionary time to meet our bipedal ancestors. We’ve witnessed how walking is a wonderful solution hit upon time and again by nature – from bottom-dwellers on the ocean floor and undulating tetrapods seeking food on sandy beaches, to we humans seeking new worlds to conquer, undertaking those great migratory waves out of Africa to walk the world over. We’ve learned that to avoid getting lost we need cognitive maps that work best when they are regularly activated by walking. We’ve wandered about the marvels that are our modern cities. Our cities can be the best of walking – if they are designed with walking in mind. We need to conceive of walking in cities in its broadest sense – giving EASE for the elderly, the young, those who have to use walking sticks, crutches and wheelchairs. As we become an increasingly urban-dwelling species we need to remember this – our cities are for people. We’ve journeyed back to childhood, when we learned to stand, struggled to our feet, fell down, and struggled back up again. And we’ve learned how all of our senses are sharpened by walking, freeing our hands for gesture, for tool use, for carrying food and children, our feet rhythmically moving, swinging through the air, stabilising against the ground, gaining purchase, and onwards we move again. The commonplace wonder is that we do this largely automatically. How can you make these lessons endure beyond reading t...