The world is walking faster

A study of cities around the world has shown that pedestrians are increasing their pace at breakneck speeds when they move from place to place, seemingly to cram as many kilometers as possible. in every day.

Scientists believe that it is a syndrome of a modern society that follows the direction of email, messages and the need to be available 24 hours a day. The most impressive increase is in Asian tiger countries, the fastest growing economies.

People in Singapore are walking faster, up 30% compared to the 1990s. In China, the pace of life in Guangzhou also increased by 20%.

Copenhagen and Madrid are Europe's fastest cities, defeating both Paris and London. Despite the reputation of "the city that never sleeps", New York ranked 8th in the ranking, after both Dublin and Berlin.

Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, used the study of pedestrian speed in 1994 to compare and find that on average, city residents moved 10% faster.

"The pace of life in big cities is much faster than before," he said. "This increase in speed affects people more than ever, because for the first time in history, most of the world's population lives in urban areas."

Wiseman worries that "we are feeling like we have to produce and operate continuously. This is motivated by the e-mail, pager, and mobile culture."

"But there must be a ceiling, because if this trend continues, we will reach the destination before we can start."

Researchers in each city have chosen a large street with wide and flat sidewalks, without obstacles for people to travel at maximum speed. Next, they calculated how long it took people to travel 18 meters.

Here is a list of the 10 fastest cities (in seconds):

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 (USA): 12.00
9. Utrecht (Netherlands): 12.04
10. Vienna (Austria): 12.06

MT