Americans Don't Walk Enough

Reuters reports on a CDC study of walking:

More American adults are walking regularly but less than half of them exercise enough to improve their health, according to a federal study released on Tuesday.

…

The agency recommends at least 150 minutes per week of aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, which can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and some forms of cancer.

“Physical activity is the wonder drug,” CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden told reporters. “It makes you healthier and happier. More Americans are making a great first step in getting more physical activity.”

150 minutes a week equals just over 20 minutes a day. This is why Walk Appeal matters.

The CDC’s recommendations for how to fix this problem are a little off though:

It recommends adding more walking trails and street lights to encourage walking, along with speed bumps and other techniques to slow traffic. The CDC also encourages agreements between local governments and schools to allow community members to use tracks after school hours.

The CDC is looking at walking as an exercise activity when they should be recommending strategies that incorporate walking as a lifestyle activity. The only way to get more people walking is to integrate it into daily life. As long as walking is just exercise that needs to crammed into a busy day it will only be the very motivated who do it. Trails are good. Speed bumps aren’t so good. But the best strategy would be creating compact, walkable neighborhoods that have both high Walk Appeal and services to walk to.