The BBC’s Finlo Rohrer laments the “slow death of the purposeless walk,” an activity replaced by modern transit and planned, regimented leisure/exercise activities. But there’s hope!
Across the West, people are still choosing to walk. Nearly every journey in the UK involves a little walking, and nearly a quarter of all journeys are made entirely on foot, according to one survey. But the same study found that a mere 17% of trips were “just to walk”. And that included dog-walking.
It is that “just to walk” category that is so beloved of creative thinkers.“There is something about the pace of walking and the pace of thinking that goes together. Walking requires a certain amount of attention but it leaves great parts of the time open to thinking. I do believe once you get the blood flowing through the brain it does start working more creatively,” says Geoff Nicholson, author of The Lost Art of Walking.
“Your senses are sharpened. As a writer, I also use it as a form of problem solving. I’m far more likely to find a solution by going for a walk than sitting at my desk and ‘thinking’.”
I suspect there is an element of benign self-deception in the idea of a purposeless walk. I walked a lot when I lived in the city, apparently without purpose, but there was concealed purpose in the rhythms and pressures of urban living. You walk to manage your environment, even when there is no destination. Walkable cities subtly help you do this.
If the “purposeless walk” seems unattainable or irrelevant, well, it might simply be because your environment doesn’t permit it. I’m not saying you have to leave LA or anything, but we do get to pick our priorities.