Years ago, I rode the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki across the Baltic Sea. I was accompanying my mother on a work trip to Scandinavia, delightfully experiencing, in person, places I had been reading about for years.
We reached Helsinki harbor around lunchtime and dragged our bags over the cobblestones of a beautiful plaza. Naturally hospitable, the Finns had a greeter standing at the center of the plaza, helping people with directions and logistics.
When I showed her the name of our hotel and asked for directions, the greeter pointed down the Esplanadi, Helsinki’s gorgeous central boulevard.
“Is it a long way?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s just a short walk,” was her sing-song reply.
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Reader, it was at least two miles. By the time we arrived at the hotel, I was thoroughly annoyed with Finnish optimism. By any stretch of the American imagination, it was not a short walk.
A year later, I had a similar experience in New York City, staying with a few old friends in Brooklyn. We had plans to go to a restaurant. When we were deciding when to leave, they said, “Oh, let’s just walk there.”
“Sure thing,” I replied.
And we proceeded to walk at least three miles. It was a fascinating trek, to be sure, but I was frankly astonished that the journey had even been attempted.
These encounters made me doubt my priors. Since then, I’ve been wondering whether the vast majority of Minnesotans, even urbanist ones, are just not in the habit of walking very much.
How much people walk is a relative concept, to be sure, and it’s not just dependent on the built environment. Certainly street design is a big part of the equation. It’s almost impossible to walk in most suburbs, and the US rate of pedestrians being hit by drivers is off the charts of most other countries in the Global North. But I still suspect that habit and culture play a large role as well.
In general, Americans are far behind most of the world when it comes to everyday walking habits, and Minnesota is in the middle of the pack nationally when it comes to walking rates. Even in parts of the city with nice sidewalks, close destinations and good weather, most people don’t walk much unless they’ve got a dog with them. For Twin Cities folks, any unnecessary walking, like being forced to park a block from a restaurant, is seen as a travesty.
This is why, on average Americans walk fewer than 4,000 steps a day, far below peer countries. Reliable comparative data is a bit hard to find, but one study puts the rate of walking in Finland at double that of the U.S., and (confirming my experience) with many longer trips. Minneapolis’ own survey data shows the “walking” mode share — the percentage of people who take a trip via each mode — as 14% of trips, but Census data around walking to work has a number at about half that amount.
What the walkers say
I decided to reach out to some of my most trusted habitual walkers, people who have been walking for years. I asked them how they developed the walking habit, and how they kept it going.
“While in LA, my car kept breaking down and I ended up moving within walking distance to my job on Wilshire Boulevard,” explained Bryan, who grew up in St. Cloud. “I just decided I was done with the hassle and would get by without a car. It was at the same time that I picked up photography, so I would go on long walks exploring LA.”
A 49-year-old amateur photographer, Bryan now lives in downtown Minneapolis’ Elliot Park neighborhood. Photography is a key part of his walking practices, with often amazing results.
“It was never ideological for me though,” he said. “I just didn’t like the hassle of having a car, and preferred walking and transit. It fit my lifestyle with the photography explorations.”
For the record, I also have a photographic walking practice, though it’s far less aesthetically appealing. Whenever I see unusual signs, lampposts, street musicians or street vendors, I make a point out of snapping their photo, and it adds wonder and anticipation to any St. Paul stroll.
“I was surprised how easy it was to do even in a town like St. Cloud,” Brian said, describing his move back to Minnesota. “That’s when I started to become more of an advocate and developed a firm car-free philosophy, which has been supercharged since moving to Minneapolis in 2023.”
Strategies for winter walking
I also got in touch with Joan, a 72-year-old “avid walker” in St. Paul’s Macalester-Groveland neighborhood. I asked her how she got the walking bug.
“I have some risk-reducing things I do,” she said, referring to the dread of winter ice. “I use poles, and some of the shoe and boot attachments kind of work, but I almost always have poles.”
Joan volunteers regularly at her neighborhood church, advocating for climate action and equity around housing in St. Paul.
“We walked as a family,” she said, remembering her childhood in the Chicago suburbs. “Especially with my dad, who walked fast, so it was always kind of an honor to walk with him if I could keep up. I walked to grade school, close by, and walked to high school, much father. It’s been part of my religion. It’s what I do.”
To me, Joan employs a surprising trick for piquing her walking interest.
“Over the last number of years I’ve been doing some ‘virtual trips,’ meaning I cover a distance located somewhere else but do it with miles here,” she explained. “I walked the Camino de Santiago virtually a few years ago.”
In other words, Joan “walked” the Camino de Santiago, the famous 200-mile walking pilgrimage through Spain, only she did it in St. Paul. After each walk around her neighborhood, she plotted her distance on the map in Spain, virtually exploring that part of the pilgrimage route to “track her progress.”
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“It really helps to be able to go to Google Street View and see what territory I’m in,” Joan said. “I look at some of the historic spots along the way, and some of the cultural fun things along the way.”
That’s just one trick to keep her walking, and keep from getting a bit too bored with St. Clair Avenue, a far less romantic destination.
“Walking keeps me connected with community, and I never get bored of it,” Joan concluded. “There’s always new things to see, or people to bump into. It doesn’t feel boring to me. And that helps me appreciate where I live a lot more.”
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