Another first for Singapore: Fastest walkers in the world

Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg

FROM airports to public housing, Singapore has achieved many firsts. Now, the bustling city has landed a less welcomed honour — its pace of life is literally the fastest.

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According to an international study by a British psychology professor, renowned for his quirky experiments, Singapore left 34 other cities including Madrid, Guangzhou, New York and London, trailing in its wake as the "fastest-moving city".

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Landing the title of the world's fastest walkers, Singaporeans clocked the shortest time of just over 10 seconds (10.55 seconds) to walk a distance of over 18 metres (60 feet or about 4.5 car lengths). This was followed by Copenhagen (10.82 seconds) and Madrid (10.89 seconds).

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With the help of British Council researchers, Professor Richard Wiseman, who had famously led an experiment in 2001 to find the world's funniest joke, had timed the walking speed of 35 men and women at each of the city centres.

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In Singapore, the experiment was conducted on Orchard Road.

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According to Mr Michael White, adviser to the British Council Science Department, the experiment was carried out in all the cities during identical times on a single day last year, on "a busy street with a wide pavement that was flat, free from obstacles and sufficiently uncrowded to allow people to walk along at their maximum speed".

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Said Mr White: "(The researchers) only monitored adults who were on their own, and ignored anyone holding a mobile telephone conversation or struggling with shopping bags."

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The results of Singapore's brisk walkers showed an increase of over 30 per cent when compared to a similar study by an American academic in 1994, which had also established that pedestrians' speed of walking provides a reliable measure of the pace of life in a city. It also said that people in fast-moving cities have higher rates of coronary heart disease.

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Back then, Singapore ranked just 15th on the survey, which was topped by Dublin.

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In the current test, European cities dominated the top 20 rankings, which included three Asian cities with Guangzhou coming in fourth while Tokyo ranked 19th.

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Overall, the pace of life in the world has risen by 10 per cent between 1994 and now, with Asian cities registering the highest increase.

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"The pace of life in our major cities is now much quicker than before. This increase in speed will affect more people than ever, because for the first time in history, the majority of the world's population are now living in urban centres," said Prof Wiseman.

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He also told British newspaper The Times: "What happens is that as people get more stressed and hurried, they spend less time with their friends, they don't have time to exercise, they eat poorly and they drink and smoke more. It's these factors that build up to cause the risk."

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And the most slow-moving city on that list? Malawi's Blantyre, where pedestrians averaged 31.6 seconds — about three times longer than Singaporeans — to walk the same distance.