Who Says We're In No Rush?

You might think the pace of life in Toronto is hectic, but we don’t even make the list when it comes to being the fastest rodents in the rat race.

According to a study of walking speeds in 32 world cities, Singaporeans covered 60 feet in a blistering 10.55 seconds while it took residents of New York a full 12 seconds. They may be the city that never sleeps, but they do so at relatively leisurely pace.

The only Canadian city to make the list was Ottawa, where the civil servants of our sleepy capital covered the distance in 13.72 seconds, good for 20th place in the rankings. The tortoises of the group were the people of Blantyre, Malawi who plodded along at about a foot per second, covering the distance in 31.60 seconds.

Of course anyone who has ever gotten off the southbound Yonge subway at the King station at 8:55 a.m. or been in the way of the GO Train crowd at Union could tell you that people in this city are a blur—and they do it without even looking up.

Though our evidence may be anecdotal, we're not the only ones in a hurry. Compared to a 1994 survey, the researchers discovered people were now walking 10 per cent faster.

"We just have this feeling that we should be producing and active all of the time," Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire told Reuters. "That is fuelled by the email, text, mobile phone culture. But there has to be an upper limit, because if this trend continues, we will arriving places before we have set off." Tell that to the next BlackBerry-wielding commuter who charges past you when the subway doors open.

Photo by Red Jenny from the Torontoist Flickr Group. Thanks to Boing Boing for the info.