Saturday, February 25, 2012

Sort-Of-Science: How much further will I walk if I use the OPPOSITE sidewalk?

I'm a creature of habit. Each morning and each evening, Wrangler The Dog and I set out on our walks. Most of the time, we walk the same route in our neighborhood, each time. My neighborhood is set up basically as two loops. Each street has a sidewalk on both sides of the street, and we usually walk the same loop, each time.

I wondered - how much further would I walk if I walked the SAME LOOP AS ALWAYS, but just crossed the street and used the OTHER sidewalk?

To figure this out, I used the GPS in my iPhone, and the Nike+ app, which tracks walking (or running, hahahaha) distance.

First walk: using the sidewalk on the right side of the street. This is the trip that SHOULD be the longest:

Next, exact same route, only using the sidewalk on the LEFT side of the street:
And there ya have it. Using the right-side-sidewalk means I walked .06 miles more than using the left-side-sidewalk.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, non-scientific blog.

No comments: