Dr. Tanya Berry says the thing that most often kept people from walking was the feeling that there are too many cars on the street. (Photo courtesy of Nathan Johnson, iWalk)
Researchers tell us one way to stay trim is to walk more often. But that’s hard in some neighborhoods – maybe sidewalks are bad or there’re no stores to walk to. Shawn Allee found one researcher who thinks what really stops us … is actually in our heads.
Transcript
Researchers tell us one way to stay trim is to walk more often.
But that’s hard in some neighborhoods – maybe sidewalks are bad or there are no stores to walk to.
Shawn Allee found one researcher who thinks what really stops us … is actually in our heads.
Dr. Tanya Berry researches physical activity, and she surveyed people living in Edmonton, Canada.
She calculated how trim or fat they were, then she logged details about their neighborhoods, things like how many stores are nearby and how many cars pass through the area.
Berry says the thing that mattered most, and kept people from walking was a subjective feeling that there are too many cars on the street.
“There was too much traffic in their neighborhoods, it made it difficult to walk, so they chose to jump in their cars and contribute to the traffic problem.”
Berry says her research team will look at how buildings and streets can be designed to make pedestrians feel there’s less traffic than there actually is, and maybe feel more comfortable walking down the street.
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.
