The Average Walking Distances

An average walking distance is the average amount of ground a group covers between two points. Those two points vary, though, meaning you have to recalculate the number whenever you change the group or the points you're looking at. As vague as the concept of average walking distance sounds, going through these repeated calculations provides valuable information about communities and their lifestyles.

Identification

No one number is "average walking distance" overall for everyone and every place. The number that gets the title of average walking distance depends on what distance you're trying to calculate. This differs based on what your community and you are used to and which specific areas you are targeting. For example, the average walking distance from residential neighborhoods to local supermarkets varies from city to city, and even from neighborhood to neighborhood. The average walking distance covered by people going about daily business will vary according to how their community is set up and what the community deems normal.

Uses

Finding the average walking distance of something or for someone lets urban planners concerned about walkability know how closely to place commercial centers and residential developments, and how to configure mass transit right down to where to place the stops. While looking at transportation in cities in Kansas and Missouri, for example, the Mid-America Regional Council notes most people will walk an average of 1,500 feet to get to shops or transit stops, and the council suggests basing residential and commercial development on this figure. Finding the average walking distances covered by people in a community gives researchers looking into obesity an idea of how much daily activity is going on. Even airport design takes average walking distance into account when deciding where to place gates.

Local Effects

Comparing average walking distances tells researchers if a region needs to improve certain aspects of life. If everyone lived in a food desert, with no neighborhoods hosting grocery stores and everyone having to drive to get fresh food, then planners and city councils might not do anything to add local grocery stores. The situation would seem normal. But if you live in a food desert and find out people across town or in another country have quick access to fresh food -- for example, Statistics Netherlands says people in The Netherlands have to walk on average about 1/2 mile to find a grocery store -- you know that it is possible for your neighborhood to improve the availability of fresh food and can begin taking action. The numbers can also indicate if general conditions in an area are still acceptable. As one example, a 2005 evaluation of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit stops found people choosing to walk to the stops walked an average of 1,995 feet. The researchers used this number as the basis for comparing different walking routes to see how obstacles along those routes, such as stairs, affected the actual amount of walking someone had to do to reach an MRT station.

International Aid

In contrast, finding out that the average walking distance for a region is above and beyond anything that would be considered acceptable in your area, even in dire circumstances, could connect that region to aid and programs to improve conditions. The United Nations says people in Africa and Asia walk an average of 6 km, or about 3.7 miles, to find safe drinking water daily. Statistics like these have become the centerpiece of fundraising efforts, such as the Live Earth Run for Water in 2010 and the Global Water Challenge, dedicated to cleaning up water supplies globally and bringing reliable infrastructure to countries in need.