Walking
The quality of a walk is dependent on what you are walking through. A mile walk in the countryside, suburbs and city feels much different and goes by faster with the amount of interest and options offered you while walking. Walking for an hour burns 170 calories. Walking is essentially free, but we could accept an extra $200 for shoes every year. The average speed of a pedestrian is 3 mph, or 1 mile in 20 minutes. The average distance of a walk trip is 1.3 miles among surveyed respondents who identified themselves as walkers. Only 5% of walk trips are commuting to work, with 40% for errands and the rest for recreation]
In and around traffic, your chance of dying as a pedestrian is higher than for biking or driving: 15 per 100 million miles walked, based on an rough estimate of 32 billion miles walked, or 44 per hundred million hours.
The minimum width of a sidewalk is 4 feet, to accommodate wheelchairs. The minimum width of a walking lane on a crowded sidewalk is 2 feet, and the space taken up by a pedestrian on a sidewalk is 12 SF, or 1% of the space needed by a car.
The capacity of a 2 foot walking lane on a sidewalk is 11,000 pph. The energy consumption of pedestrianism is directly related to the calories burned: 500/BTU/mile.
The cost of building a mile of 5-foot wide sidewalk (2 pedestrian lanes) is 120,000 $/mile, or $60,000 per mile of lane. The cost of maintenance for this sidewalk is $6,000/mile/year. Public sidewalks are commonly paid for as part of highway projects, and therefore 30% percent paid for by the highway trust fund. The share of funds that goes to pedestrian projects is tiny compared to traffic-ways, usually around 1% of road project funding.
In and around traffic, your chance of dying as a pedestrian is higher than for biking or driving: 15 per 100 million miles walked, based on an rough estimate of 32 billion miles walked, or 44 per hundred million hours.
The minimum width of a sidewalk is 4 feet, to accommodate wheelchairs. The minimum width of a walking lane on a crowded sidewalk is 2 feet, and the space taken up by a pedestrian on a sidewalk is 12 SF, or 1% of the space needed by a car.
The capacity of a 2 foot walking lane on a sidewalk is 11,000 pph. The energy consumption of pedestrianism is directly related to the calories burned: 500/BTU/mile.
The cost of building a mile of 5-foot wide sidewalk (2 pedestrian lanes) is 120,000 $/mile, or $60,000 per mile of lane. The cost of maintenance for this sidewalk is $6,000/mile/year. Public sidewalks are commonly paid for as part of highway projects, and therefore 30% percent paid for by the highway trust fund. The share of funds that goes to pedestrian projects is tiny compared to traffic-ways, usually around 1% of road project funding.