WalkBoston named Finalist in International Competition!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! WalkBoston has been named one of ten finalists in the "Global Competition for Innovative Health Nudges" which looks for small, innovative pushes that help people make better health choices for themselves and others.

WalkBoston's "Timed Walking Map" project is one of ten finalists among 281 entries from around the world. Now, we need your participation in the vote so that WalkBoston can become one of three winners who will receive $5,000 toward our work. This is a one-vote-per-person system, not one where people vote every day for a month, so it should just take a few minutes to register and vote for three of the ten finalists. To vote, go to http://www.changemakers.net/designingforbetterhealth before 6PM on Friday, May 28. Click on Vote Now, and then register and vote.

WalkBoston became a finalist because our low-cost, easy-to-read maps help people see their neighborhoods, towns and cities on a walking scale, which encourages them to choose walking over driving some of the time. Our inclusion among the finalists is a great honor and an opportunity to spread the word about our walking maps and our advocacy that makes walking easier, safer and more fun.

We hope that you will share this information with your friends and coworkers to spread the word, encourage everyone to vote, and learn more about all of the creative and effective health nudges among the ten finalists. Winners will be announced June 1, and we'll let you know how we do!

Thank you for your support of these innovative maps (and other pioneering projects we work on)! Now - please vote, and then go outside and take a walk!

(Click on map below to download a pdf of a timed walking map from our web page.)

The Built Environment, Activity, and Walking

This weekend's incredibly gorgeous weather forecast has me eagerly anticipating a lot of time in the sunshine, and thinking about what a huge impact the built environment can have on people in innumerable ways.

Today, a friend sent me a link to Not Just Child’s Play, an article in BU Today about a study that has found that renovated playgrounds appear to improve the MCAS math scores of kids who attend those schools. It may be that a nice playground makes kids feel more invested in school, or more valued, or it may mean they're more likely to run around and be active over the course of the day. Who knows, but whatever the cause, there seems to be a connection between the built environment around schools and kids' ability to learn.

Similarly, another friend send me a link to Brain Gains, a feature focusing on the huge benefit to learning that physical activity provides. Many of us live in environments that don't encourage, or actively discourage physical activity and movement over the course of the day, and an increasing body of research suggests that this is bad for our physical health, mental health, learning, productivity and mood.

Is your physical environment encouraging you to be active? Do you have sidewalks or trails where you can walk? Can you easily cross streets and do you enjoy greenery and clean streets in your neighborhood? Are there places to walk to, if you want to run errands on foot?

Increasingly, it appears that the answers to these questions have implications not merely for how much you walk but also for how you feel, how friendly and welcoming your neighborhood is, how much crime takes place there, and the price of homes there. We at WalkBoston often wrestle with the perception of walking as a "pedestrian" activity that people take for granted, but pedestrian advocacy is important because it connects to almost every element of our lives.

Street Talk: Russ Lopez on Urban Health

LivableStreets Alliance to host Street Talk by Russ Lopez on Urban Health: How shaping our built environment shapes ourselves.
When: Thursday, April 2, 7 - 9 pm
Where: 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

This event is free and open to the public. Donation suggested. Beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

"If there’s a supermarket in your zip code, for example, you’re 10% less likely to be obese. If there are a lot of intersections in your neighborhood - a sign of street connectivity and continuity - you’re less likely to be obese. And, not surprisingly, the more time people spend in their cars, the more likely they are to be obese” says Lopez. Come hear Russ Lopez speak about how our built environment – from playgrounds to fast food chains – shapes ourselves.

Russ Lopez, a native of California, is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Past employment includes working on urban and environmental issues for then Lt. Governor John Kerry. He also worked for ten years in various positions in for the City of Boston on housing, community development and environmental concerns. Dr. Lopez was the first Executive Director of the Environmental Diversity Forum, a coalition of environmentalists and community activists advocating for environmental justice issues throughout New England.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance.

For more information, click here.

10,000 steps a day

How many steps do you take each day? Most people don't know the answer to this question, of course, because few of us take the time to count our steps on a daily basis. But this is a great reason to pick up a pedometer and find out.

I've been wearing a pedometer for about a week, now, and I'm surprised to find how, without even meaning to, I'm competing with myself to walk more than I would otherwise: If, toward the end of the day, I'm close to a big round number -- say I have 8,500 steps -- I'm motivated to try to round it out to 9,000 by walking around the house more in the evening, or even to get to 10,000 by going out for a little walk in my neighborhood.

The recommended number of steps a person should get per day is 10,000. Because I live in the city and don't have a car, I walk a lot, so I find that in the course of my average day, walking from my house to the T, the T to my office, around my office during the day and then back home, I get around 4,000 steps. By taking a short midmorning and midafternoon break to walk around my neighborhood for about 10 minutes each time, I push it up to 6,500. A single long walk at some point in the day then gets me over 10,000.

But I'm lucky, because my baseline amount of walking is pretty high. What if you don't walk so much? Get yourself a pedometer and find out how much you do walk during the day. It may be more or less than you think. Then, set yourself a goal of increasing it by a certain amount each day. Say you walk an average of 3,000 steps a day when you're gathering your baseline data. The next week, you can aim to walk 4,000 a day, and then 5,000 each day the week after that.

Little increases in walking really do add up. We've all heard the suggestion that we park farther from the entrance to stores. Try also going to the coffee shop that's slightly further from your office, or instead of going to the nearest restroom in your office, find one that's on another floor or takes a bit longer to walk to. Walk around while you sip your afternoon coffee, pace while you talk on the phone...

What are some of your favorite ways to slip a few more steps into your day?