Is Life Really Faster-Paced in the City?

Amidst constant traffic and an army of commuters, it can seem as if city life hurtles at breakneck speed. You aren’t imagining it; it really is fast-paced—and it’s getting faster.

Since the 1970s, watchful researchers have charted the speed of pedestrians in towns and cities across the globe. Their findings confirm their hunch that the bigger and richer the metropolis, the faster everyone dashes around.

But why are city dwellers in such a rush, anyway? One theory is that larger, wealthier cities have higher rates of pay, meaning there is more worker competition and greater motive to get to work early. The “time is money” philosophy makes the stakes of a missed appointment that much higher.

A simpler and more credible reason surfaced when researchers looked at who actually lives in cities. It seems that the faster pace is simply because more young people are in the centers of the largest, richest cities, Sky-high property prices and tall apartment buildings aren’t attractive to the elderly and differently abled. Crowds of competitive youngsters’ legs move quickly, making the rest of us feel like we’re living in the slow lane.

n Double-tap image to read the labels

city slickers

The larger the city, the faster people tend to walk. On average, urbanites in the city-state Singapore walk around 30% faster than the residents of Ottawa, which has only one-quarter of Singapore’s population.