Benefits and Risks of Walking - Essay Example

Walking indicates that a walking session of at least 30 minutes is essential for good health if the person adopts an appropriate walking posture then he is at lower risk of cancer, heart disease, anxiety and depression. But, it is said that in some parts of the world particularly in the United States people are no more pedestrians. With the emergence of modern cars, people prefer to travel more their luxuries car rather than spending some time walking on their foot. Walking also strengths your joints and bone . According to Zivot (185), it was reported that in the United States that there was a drastic decrease in rates of mortality which was 39 percent for the individuals who adopted walking as their regular habit. By walking the life expectancy of such diabetic patients increased greater but it is distressing that people in the USA still ignore this fact. There are some electronic devices due to which people gave up walking, these mobile devices include treadmills.

There are increased rates of road accidents which also contributes to declining the number of pedestrians has declined to 30% in downtown Los Angeles since 1961. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Assaily.JP(258) the rates of pedestrian accidents have increased in the United States hence safety of pedestrians has become a burning issue these days. One of the reports of NHTSA showed that annually 4,100 pedestrians die in road accidents after every one or two hours, various rules should be formulated in order to provide safety to the pedestrians like designing zebra crossing and placing signals everywhere especially on all the busy roads like enforcing laws to limit. However, it is the responsibility of pedestrians to take some protective measures too like they should pay full attention to roads while crossing them instead of being busy on a call as it diverts their attention and increases the risk of accidents on roads. Pedestrians are also instructed to look at both ends of roads before crossing them. Care must be taken while crossing at the intersections of roads but it is comparatively safe to cross from here rather than crossing in the middle of the roads. Always make eye contact with the driver before crossing as it really helps. Try to walk on the side of roads like footpaths and pavements as they are provided to you for this purpose. (Assay, 259)

Older popular is at greater risk of accidents because of lowered visual reflexes and they take more time of recovery after trauma due to reduced heeling ability and slow process of bone formation. Similarly, children are unable to gauge the velocity of cars and other vehicles so are easily exposed to accidents. According to Safe Kids USA, about 630 child pedestrians die per year. Some parents remain busy grabbing their children while crossing the road which is also a very alarming situation. (Derlet et al,5)

Due to the above-mentioned fact population of United States greatly fears walking and prefer to use their cars even for short distances which results in an increase in the rate of obesity and different systemic illness like hypertension and heart attacks.

So in my opinion, the bottom line is that pedestrian crashes are preventable and can easily be declined and it should not impact our walking habits as it plays a key role in our fitness. Hence, it must not be neglected. Law enforcing authorities should make certain amendments in law and order to reduce such happening and design ways to encourage the residents towards walking habits. Policies should be made to reduce the use of automobiles. We all know being pedestrian in a big city is not an easy choice therefore enforcement of norms to enhance the workability of the area is beneficial. Various commercials can also help in this regard to encourage the people towards working. Read More