Americans ‘can’t fathom’ how much people in the UK walk

The internet is in disagreement about whether a 30 minute walk is ‘short’

A debate between Americans and people from the UK on what is an acceptable journey to make by foot has been sparked on Reddit after a podcast described a 30-minute journey as a “short walk”.

In a post to the online forum, a user (indymom810) said she couldn’t “fathom walking that far in the US”, and asked, “do people really walk this much in the UK?”

“I was listening to an ITV true-crime podcast yesterday, and the person said ‘it was a short walk home, about thirty minutes’.

“Is that really considered to be a short walk home? I can’t fathom walking that far in the US and considering it anything I’d do just to get home. Do people walk that much in the UK?,” the post said.

As expected, the question – which has already received almost 6,000 comments since being posted on Thursday, 19 August – has been inundated with arguments from both Americans and people from the UK on whether walking for 30 minutes is acceptable.

One person from the UK wasn’t sure if the user was joking or not, writing: “30 minutes is only a mile and a half, you’re joking aren’t you? I take my dog [on] longer walks.”

Clarifying that her question was serious, the user said, “most of the US just isn’t set up for walking”.

“No sidewalks, crazy drivers, plus just distance. Americans don’t walk. Also, where I am in Indiana, there is no mass transit. Indianapolis has it, but it’s scarce and quite unreliable. We drive everywhere. As in, everywhere,” she said.

Another user in the comments said walking was seen as so abnormal in many US states that if you do decide to travel by foot, police may stop you to ask if everything is okay.

One person from the UK said they regularly take half-an-hour walks despite considering themselves “unfit and lazy”.

“I have a car and I live in London with buses and trains every few minutes. A 30-minute walk is nothing, I wouldn’t even think twice about it,” they said.

In 2017, a study by Stanford University found that the average American walked approximately 4,700 steps a day, roughly 1,200 steps less than the average in the UK.

Researchers found a link between activity and environment, finding that those who lived in more “walkable” areas walked more.

“It’s really quite significantly impacted by where you live and how easy your environment makes it for you to be active,” Tim Althoff, lead author of the study, “Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality”, told Health.