Trees clean urban air, store carbon, slow floodwaters and can be used to design safer streets. Scholars are starting to calculate what these services are worth – a fitting topic for Arbor Day.
As little as 20 minutes of exercise a day can offset a sedentary lifestyle. And that exercise can include walking the dog.
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In many cities, convention holds that there’s a lane for walking and a lane for standing on the escalator. But human systems engineers suggest this isn’t the most efficient option for the system.
Alone and adrift in Melbourne, Cassandra Pybus returned on a whim to her childhood home of Tasmania. There, she rediscovered nature’s power, encountering the island’s difficult history as well as her own.
Walking has a variety of health benefits.
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Many of us are programmed to aim for 10,000 steps a day. This target is not right for everyone – but we can all benefit from setting step goals to increase our activity.
Uninviting, car-dominated streets, like this one in Melbourne, reduce our experience menu by discouraging beneficial activities like walking and sharing places with other people.
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If the menu of potential activities that do us good is made to look uninviting or challenging, we are more likely to choose the easier but less healthy option.
Children’s travel needs are a big factor in private car use.
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The private car is the default transport option for many families. This reduces physical activity and increases greenhouse gas emissions, with unhealthy results for their children and the environment.
Most of Kyoto’s narrow streets could become no-car zones.
The city where the Kyoto Protocol was signed resolved some years ago to move away from cars and towards low-emission alternatives for getting around. And it’s making real progress towards that goal.
A very precise kind of electrical stimulation has allowed three people with spinal cord injury to walk again.
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Research published today shows that walking again is possible for individuals with spinal cord injury. After electrical stimulation, three people with lower leg paralysis could walk to some extent.
What’s your risk of dying if you cycle to work, versus the health benefits? What about walking, or driving, or catching a train? Here are the risks and benefits.
The settings on traffic lights make pedestrians wait longer by giving higher priority to vehicle traffic.
Abaconda Management Group/Wikimedia
Everyone doesn’t simply wait their turn at traffic lights. Signals are set up to enable a ‘green wave’ for cars and adjust to heavy traffic, making walkers wait longer no matter how many there are.
OK, you don’t need the poles. But you should pick up the pace.
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Four out of five experts say walking is enough exercise.
Very wet weather is likely to persuade many regular cyclists and walkers to travel instead by car if they can. This is Bondi Junction after a storm hit Sydney.
David Moir/AAP
The relationship between weather and our travel choices is complicated. We can’t change the weather, but, with many other factors in play, good policy and design can reduce its impacts.