Are you a fast or slow walker? Is your city or town wealthy or poor? Believe it or not, research suggests walking speed and a city's prosperity may be related! Citizens of bigger, affluent cities tend to walk faster, while residents of poorer cities tend to take things a little slower. Why is that? A social psychologist named Robert Levine wanted to know, so he went out into the streets to get answers.
A worldwide experiment
With help from all over the world, Levine conducted an experiment. What's the average speed of a pedestrian over a distance of 18.29 meters?
Volunteers in big cities in 31 countries timed pedestrians as they covered this distance and submitted their results. The fastest pedestrians lived in Ireland, crossing the distance in an average of 11.13 seconds. The slowest walkers hailed from Brazil, where they got from point A to point B at a more leisurely 16.76 seconds.
Levine found that these results were strongly related to economic success. Residents of cities that struggled or were still developing moved at a slower pace, and residents of wealthy cities moved faster. The motto "Time is money" seems to be true!
Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Speed vs. Pace
The title of our article today is "The Speed of Cities", but if look below the title, you will notice the word "pace." The deck of the article said, "a city's pace of life reveals a lot about its size, success, and culture".
So, you may be wondering, "Are the words speed and pace synonymous? Are they interchangeable?"
Hmm... well, why don't we talk about this as it relates to a car. Would you say your new car has a very good pace? Or a very good speed?
I would choose "speed" because a car is a mechanical object. If we are talking about an animate object, like a man, a dog, or a horse, "pace" would me more appropriate.
That's right. A man or an animal might walk or run at a fast pace. Your car or motorcycle travels at a certain speed.
Also, the word "pace" is usually used in expressions like "the pace of life" or "work at a slow pace". It's more related to human activities.
Right! OK. Let's get more technical. If you're a runner, you can focus on either your pace or your speed. Your pace is the time it takes to cover a certain distance, such as four minutes. But your speed is indicated by the ratio, kilometers per hour.
So, if I run at a speed of ten kilometers an hour, I would be running at a pace of six minutes per kilometers.
Oh, that sounds like a good workout.
Grammar Gym
"...while residents of poorer cities tend to take things a little slower."
to take things: to handle or respond to situations
- Edward likes to take things one at a time.
- Sam doesn't take things too well whenever he's hungry and tired.
Language Lab
affluent adj.
/ˈæfluwənt/
having a large amount of money and owning many expensive things : rich, wealthy
- Jacky was born and raised in an affluent family.
- Tina lives in an affluent neighborhood in Miami.
pedestrian n.
a person who is walking in a city, along a road, etc.
- Pedestrians are not commonly seen in Los Angeles.
pedestrian adj.
relating to or designed for people who are walking
- a pedestrian zone
- a pedestrian bridge
hail from [phrasal verb]
hail from (a place) : to have been born or raised in (a place) : to come from (a place)
- The band hailed from Sydney, Australia.
- The girl hails from a wealthy family, but she's very down to earth.
motto n.
/ˈmɑ:toʊ/
a short sentence or phrase that expresses a rule guiding the behavior of a particular person or group
- My father's motto is "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dine like a pauper."
pauper n.
pauper n.
a very poor person who has no money to pay for food, clothing, etc.
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