Slow Shuffle To a Less Flabby America

I know walking can power economic activity, because an outfit called WalkScore scored nationwide press this month by ranking how easy neighborhoods around the USA seem to pedestrians. and walking is basic to our healthcare and energy messes. Where the public health crisis meets the climate threat, you’d hope to see a lot of  sidewalks. Walking comprises the easiest, cheapest calorie burn available. And places that invite walking  can repel congestion  and pollution. How, then, to invest in them?

Unfortunately, the answer must be: slowly.

It’s a problem of time, benefit and visibility. Corporations who benefit from a supply of peppy, astute workers- like SAP, which owns a new pedestrian-minded office campus outside Philadelphia- can try to outpull competitors by tuning up their real estate’s aerobic appeal. Cities can cajole big landowners to create plazas and support parks. But to really inject walking into the artery-clogged expanes of our country requires considerable sweep. And that means federal leadership.

The Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development have started collaborating to make their grants encourage walkable neighborhoods. And Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood delivers a rousing stump speech about creating car-free commutes from sidewalk to bike path to rail station and back. I even saw him hint to a roomful of New York finance types that the bailed-out car companies, if they’d “read the memo,” would understand the historic shift underway.

But federal dollars require review, procurement, yada yada. Transit changes require planning. The procedures, even in small towns, consume years. And Americans consume more hurtful calories and greenhouse gases every day.

The stimulus bill won’t quicken the economic importance of walking as fast as I wish it would. Nearly half the payout LaHood has made so far from the stimulus bill goes to road maintenance. It would be thrilling if some entrepreneur could find a way to sell ad space only visible to walkers, and milk the advertising revenue the way Amazon did in the dotcom boom.

The physical world is tougher to monetize than the virtual one, though. Which means that making our cities healthier places for business remains a governmental mandate at governmental pace.