Wednesday, May 2, 2007

The world gets richer and...

... walks faster. In ten years the walking speed has increased by 10%. This is the result of Robert Levine's new study. The opportunity cost of time grew, so we sped the pace. This is the list (in decreasing order of walking speed):
1) Singapore (Singapore); 10.55

2) Copenhagen (Denmark); 10.82

3) Madrid (Spain); 10.89

4) Guangzhou (China): 10.94

5) Dublin (Ireland); 11.03

6) Curitiba (Brazil); 11.13

7) Berlin (Germany); 11.16

8) New York (US); 12.00

9) Utrecht (Netherlands); 12.04

10) Vienna (Austria); 12.06

11) Warsaw (Poland); 12.07

12) London (United Kingdom); 12.17

13) Zagreb (Croatia); 12.20

14) Prague (Czech Republic); 12.35

15) Wellington (New Zealand); 12.62

16) Paris (France); 12.65

17) Stockholm (Sweden); 12.75

18) Ljubljana (Slovenia); 12.76

19) Tokyo (Japan); 12.83

20) Ottawa (Canada); 13.72

21) Harare (Zimbabwe); 13.92

22) Sofia (Bulgaria); 13.96

23) Taipei (Taiwan): 14.00

24) Cairo (Egypt); 14.18

25) Sana (Yemen); 14.29

26) Bucharest (Romania); 14.36

27) Dubai (United Arab Emirates); 14.64

28) Damascus (Syria); 14.94

29) Amman (Jordan); 15.95

30) Bern (Switzerland); 17.37

31) Manama (Bahrain); 17.69

32) Blantyre (Malawi); 31.60

Why NY is not on the top of the list? In the excellent Geography of Time (1998), as far as I remember, Levine says that the congestion on its sidewalks caused measurement bias. By the way, he writes about his experience as a visiting fellow at a Brazilian university (UFF) in the Preface of the book. Funny and true.

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