Feet Flying Up In The Air

Research confirms just how annoying it is to stay stuck behind a Malawian while being trailed by a Singaporean:

Move out of the way! New Yorkers are a step ahead, walking at a pace 10 percent faster than a decade ago, a new study has shown.

But the pace of walkers in the Big Apple trails behind seven other big cities, including Singapore and Copenhagen.

The international study, which clocked the time it took for men and women to walk along a 60-foot stretch of pavement, revealed males generally walk 25 percent faster than their high-heeled female counterparts.

. . .

The average walking time in New York was 12 seconds per 60 feet, or about 3.4 mph.

Retirement sales worker Nichole Dougherty, 28, from TriBeCa, stepped up the pace, cutting through the crowds to reach a meeting on time yesterday afternoon.

“I walk in heels and I walk fast. I’ve traveled to Europe and we definitely walk much faster in New York,” she said.

Despite being famous for its bustling pace, the city that never sleeps ranked only eighth in the world.

The survey of 32 countries found New Yorkers were speedier walkers than people in London, Paris and Tokyo. Singaporeans were the fastest walkers, at 3.9 mph while residents in Blantre, Malawi, were the slowest surveyed, at 1.3 mph.

Researchers conducted the experiment by secretly timing thousands of pedestrians’ speeds in city centers around the world.

In each city, the survey was carried out on the same day, at the same local time on a busy street which was flat and wide enough for people to walk at their maximum speed. The survey monitored adults walking on their own and did not include people on mobile phones or struggling with shopping bags.

Identical research methods were used to compare the new study to the results of a survey in 1994, revealing the pace of life is now about 10 percent faster.