Overview

• The study published in Nature provides causal evidence that living in more walkable urban environments raises average daily steps by about 1,400.
• Researchers analyzed three years of Argus app data from roughly 5,400 users who relocated across 7,500 moves in 1,600 US cities, controlling for age, sex, BMI, season and overall activity.
• Model estimates indicate walkable designs could lift the share of adults meeting 150 minutes of weekly walking from 18% nationwide to over 29% in cities like Chicago and 32.5% in New York.
• German urban-planning experts, including Stefan Siedentop, are leveraging the results to advocate 15-minute city concepts and pilots such as Darmstadt’s Lincoln-Siedlung to boost pedestrian access.
• The research team warns that Argus users may not reflect the broader population, and planners should cautiously adjust projections for different demographic and cultural contexts.