want to boost your daily step count? consider location, location, location
4 minute read
pedestrians cross metcalfe st. while walking on ste-catherine st. in downtown montreal.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
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the idea your postal code can affect your activity level isn’t new. the movement toward creating more walkable cities is based on the opinion the more convenient it is to walk to local schools, stores, libraries, banks, parks and recreation facilities, the more likely it is people will leave their cars at home. but the data supporting the concept of walkability hasn’t been very successful in determining between whether urban design outweighs personal motivation when it comes to choosing between lacing up your walking shoes or grabbing the car keys.
with the popularity of smart phones that seamlessly log not only daily steps, but also location, data crucial to determining the walking habits of people in cities around the world is now available for analysis. taking advantage of the technology, tim althoff, assistant professor of computer science at the university of washington, and his colleagues analyzed the cell phone data of 5,424 americans who pulled up stakes at least once over a three-year period. the idea was to see if step counts increased or decreased when people moved from more or less walkable neighbourhoods.
“the dataset includes smartphone derived accelerometry recordings of physical activity for free-living individuals that were exposed to different built environments, enabling us to compare their objectively measured, longitudinal physical activity for up to 90 days before and after relocation,” said althoff and his team in the journal nature.
to ensure they gathered as accurate a picture as possible, the researchers excluded the days just before and after moving in case the move itself affected step count. they also broke down the data by sex, age and body weight to see whether individual characteristics influenced activity levels.
“we found that significantly more walkable locations are associated with increases of about 1,100 daily steps and significantly less walkable locations are associated with similar decreases,” said the researchers who also stated the results didn’t differ based on sex, age and body weight.
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to further illustrate the effect of walkable cities on step count, the study reveals the 178 individuals who relocated to new york city (considered one of the world’s most walkable cities with a walkability score of 89/100) from a city with a walkability score of 48, increased their step count from 5,600 to 7,000.
walkability scores are out of 100 and are based on the proximity of services, schools and retail establishments within a short walk of the city’s residents. the more amenities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, the greater the mix of residential and commercial buildings and the better the connection between active transportation and public transit, the higher the score.
also taken into consideration is pedestrian safety, comfort and accessibility, including features like sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, scenery and design (trees, shrubs, flowers), places to rest, amount of shade and absence of ice or other impediments that make walking challenging.
vancouver is considered canada’s most walkable city (79.9/100) and is lauded for the number of sidewalks, crossing signals, accessible public events and easy access to public transit. montreal is no. 2 (65.4/100), based on the appreciation of walking among the city’s many historical buildings and the large number of cafés, markets, restaurants and green spaces within walking distance of most of its residents. toronto ranks third (61/100) with a shout out to its concentration of the arts, shopping and attractions within easy walking distance of each other.
althoff and his colleagues noted the vast majority of individuals in their study didn’t consider walkability a major consideration when choosing their new neighbourhood, a decision worth reviewing given the effect it could have on health. studies suggest step counts of 7,000 or more per day decrease the risk of several chronic diseases and depression. and since most of the steps accumulated in the study were at a brisk pace, they also contribute to the 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity recommended as the minimum amount of exercise needed per week to improve health.
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clearly, those extra steps can make a difference, especially for people who struggle accumulating enough steps or physical activity to meet the recommended minimum amount of exercise. althoff claims if all cities had a walkability score of 78, the average person would walk 443 more steps a day and gain an extra 24 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week. he also notes the increases in steps triggered by moving to a more walkable neighbourhood was sustained for at least three months.
it’s time to include walkability to the list of priorities when choosing a new home. many real estate listings include a walkability score that can help with decision-making. or you can look the score up by putting the address into the walk score website.
“our findings suggest that designing built environments to be more activity-friendly could have significant effects of the physical activity of large populations and serve as a powerful complement to interventions that focus on changing behaviour at an individual level,” althoff said.
this article was originally published in the montreal gazette on march 8, 2026.
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