my Ebook for free now

You can download ‘Walking for me, you and millions more’, for free (see PDF). It reads like a classic now. Written just before the pandemic, but all issues are more relevant than ever.

(1-6-2022)

GUIDE FOR PRODUCTIVE AND HEALTHY WORKING HOURS

The book is a guide to behavioural change and a must for every professional involved with walking issues. ‘Walk Your Meeting’ explains how organizations and teams function better when they walk for part of their meetings. During the pandemic, this approach proved extra to be a execellent form of collaboration that can also be used in homework situations. The book contains numerous examples. The personal tone by author Martine de Vaan makes the publication extra attractive. Only in Dutch, but you can read my review in the Dutch Blog of this site and translate. Worth while!

(1-5-2022)

During the pandemic the positive image of people going on foot got an enormous boost. More people walk more. But others get less exercise. Although walking is in, the implications of the pandemic are unclear. I was hesitated in publishing on this issue but I expect to write more coming year. Meanwhile I changed a number of Tips & Tools, like the tips to tempt teenagers to walk with their parents. Enjoy. My Corona Walking Kit (see below) is still a good list.

(4-10-21)

THE FIVE POINT CORONA WALKING KIT

The list for governments to do. And for the public ( so you, me and others) to lobby for:

Open up streets where people need space to move on foot. In places and spots with many walkers and many cars or cyclists, organize separate ways. Cars sometimes need to make extra detours.
At crossings with traffic lights: quit the buttons, so walkers get green light automatically. They need not touch buttons. A simple change in the system for engineers, but still many local governments are still not aware (of this necessity).
Offer much longer green traffic lights to walkers and cyclists, so they don`t form groups waiting and causing distance problems.
Ask pedestrians what problems they encounter and fix their sidewalks immediately.
Decide to limit speed: maximum thirty kilometers or twenty miles per hour. And twenty kilometers for bicycles. Many cities and villages have a large majority of the population in favor of speed limitations, all over the world.

Forget measures that are too extreme to many people. Concentrate on practical issues, easy to explain and do not take much time to implement. We face difficult times. A lot of people are in financial or health trouble. They foresee a difficult future for themselves or their loved ones. They feel insecure and hate experiments. Finally, also consider campaigning on this:

Showing your directions by pointing your hand left or right, as a walker and as a bicyclist. Why not? For many years already obligatory for bicyclists, but often forgotten. A positive way to make safer places for everybody.

This kit is based on my experience as an international expert in walking and a writer, looking around our globe.

(10-5-2020)

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