Walking

• Shoes or boots [Optional]
• Hats, coat, gloves [Optional]
• Backpack, shopping bags, or a shopping caddy [Optional]

1. Determine how long and how far you can comfortably walk.
2. Identify safe and convenient routes and times of day you can walk.
3. Scout routes by taking walks with a friend or family for fun and exercise. [Optional]
4. Make a commitment to complete more trips by walking.
5. Aim to replace a specific number of car trips, such as one per week.
6. Use a map or app like Google Maps to plan your walking trips. [Optional]
7. Wear appropriate clothing for the weather.
8. Bring a backpack, bags, or shopping caddy if you are planning to shop. [Optional]
9. Walk for trips to shops, school, government offices, etc.

The practice of taking short trips by foot may be more of a psychological adjustment than a physical one. In North American culture, walking is considered a low-status or leisure activity. Many people drive passenger vehicles for short utilitarian trips out of habit, social convention, or fear for their personal safety.

According to medical authorities, healthy adult humans in most weather conditions can easily walk at a steady pace for two hours, covering seven miles every day. You can determine how long and how far you can comfortably walk from your home by taking scouting walks with a friend or family for fun and exercise.

While healthy people without mobility issues will regularly take long walks of several miles for exercise and socializing, public transit studies in North America find that people prefer not to walk more than 0.25 or 0.5 miles for utilitarian trips.

For this practice, a six-step model for successful change is especially helpful:

1. Evaluate: consider your opportunities to walk instead of drive.
2. Commit: tell yourself and your family you will walk more.
3. Aim: set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, such as walking the next time you go to the grocery store.
4. Plan: decide how you will walk.
5. Do: complete trips by walking.
6. Measure: how far are you walking and how far are you driving.

The main environmental benefit of walking is that it reduces vehicular traffic, which conserves energy, prevents pollution, reduces risks of traffic accidents, and builds community by making communities cleaner, quieter, and safer.

1. Your neighborhood does not have sidewalks
1. Walk on the left side of the road, facing oncoming traffic.
2. Drive to a walkable area, then walk from there.
2. You lack the time to walk
1. Plan trips for when you have more time.
2. Build time for walking into your weekly schedule.
3. Prioritize time for walking in your schedule, removing or rescheduling activities that prevent you from walking.
3. You don't want to walk
1. Find ways to reward yourself for taking a trip on foot.
2. Listen to podcasts or books on tape while you walk.
4. You tire quickly when walking
1. Take shorter walks to start.
2. Build up your endurance with an exercise plan.
5. You have too much to carry to walk
1. Wear a backpack
2. Use a shopping caddy

• Community
• Demonstrate Best Practices
• Inspire people in your community to walk
• Movement
• Move By Muscle
• Save the environmental and financial costs of operating a passenger vehicle
• Reduce local vehicular traffic
• Get healthy exercise
• Energy
• Conserve Energy
• Save the environmental and financial costs of producing power
• Habitat
• Prevent Pollution
• Protect environmental health and well-being

• Decrease passenger vehicle trips
• Measure: Engine starts
• Method: Logbook
• Time Period: Week
• Increase walked kilometers
• Measure: Walking distance
• Method: Cell phone app such as Strava
• Time Period: Week
• Decrease driven kilometers
• Measure: Vehicle miles driven
• Method: Vehicle odometer
• Time Period: Year
• Decrease fuel consumption
• Measure: Fuel purchased
• Method: Logbook or financial records
• Time Period: Year
• Decrease electricity consumption
• Measure: Electricity consumed
• Method: Utility bills or meter readings
• Time Period: Year
• Increase people walking in community
• Measure: Community members walking
• Method: Logbook
• Time Period: Year

• Lack of infrastructure
• Walking may be impossible or unsafe in areas designed exclusively for high-speed vehicular traffic
• Uneven sidewalks may pose a danger if you are unstable on your feet
• Long distance trips
• Walking is infeasible for trips longer than eleven kilometers
• Extreme weather
• Walking is infeasible during hurricanes and blizzards
• Crime
• The personal risks of being harassed or attacked may outweigh the environmental benefits of walking
• Physical limitations
• You may be unable to walk
• Carrying capacity
• While walking, you can only carry a limited volume and weight

• Cycling 101
• Move faster
• Move further with less effort
• Carry more
• Electric Driving 101
• Complete trips in bad weather
• Travel through high-crime areas with less personal risk
• Move faster and farther
• Move other people and possessions