Time to talk about the differences in how we walk

People move differently when they walk in groups than when they walk alone. And their walking style is especially distinct when they walk with children, according to a recent cross-cultural study of pedestrians.

The study, which also shows that men tend to walk differently with other men than with women and that some cultures may promote walking speed over sociability, underscores that how we move is not dependent solely on physiology or biomechanics.

It is also influenced to a surprising extent by where we grew up and who we hang out with.

Recently, Cara Wall-Scheffler, a biology professor at Seattle Pacific University, wondered to what extent interpersonal effects on walking pace might also be cultural.

So for the recent study, published in PeerJ — Life and Environment, she and undergraduate student Leah Bouterse set up mirrored examinations in two places with contrasting ways of life.

One was Seattle, the other Mukono, a town in Uganda where Bouterse spent a semester.

In each city, she and Bouterse sought out a local pathway near a major market centre, where people often walked to and from. They identified permanent markers along the path, such as street signs, set about 30 feet apart.

Bouterse timed more than 1,700 people as they walked through the marked section and identified them by gender, approximate age, any loads they carried, and who else, if anyone, they walked with, including children.

She and Wall-Scheffler compared the two cities’ results.

People in Uganda walked more quickly than those in Seattle when they were alone, their pace averaging about 11 per cent swifter than lone walkers in the U.S.

But they were slower in groups. Both men and women in Mukono strolled at a more leisurely pace when they were with others, especially children. Their pace when accompanied by children was about 16 per cent slower than when they were alone, whether they carried the children or walked beside them.

The opposite was true in Seattle. There, people sped up when they walked with other people.