Walking is going out of fashion – with the number of journeys taken by foot falling to its lowest level for 15 years.
Just 210 walking trips were taken on average by each Briton last year – a drop of more than a quarter. Experts from the World Cancer Research Fund say the worrying lack of activity raises the risk of cancer and chronic diseases.
Guidelines recommend up to 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day to maximise the health benefits. A Department for Transport survey found that the average person made 960 trips last year, with two-thirds of them in a car – including a fifth of all journeys of less than a mile.
It also found a 28 per cent decline in the average number of walking trips since 1995. Then, each person walked an average of 292 times a year.
And it reveals that only 41 per cent of Britons walked for 20 minutes three times a week or more.
Dr Rachel Thompson, of the World Cancer Research Fund, said: ‘We estimate that more than 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented each year in the UK by people being more active.
‘The fact that walking levels have dropped so far over such a short period is a deep concern because there is no suggestion that people have swapped walking for other types of activity.’
(Daily Mail)