On March 30th I was privileged to complete my fourth Holland 50 Mile Kennedy March, this time representing the FreeWalkers. Five such walks in different locations qualify one to be a Master Kennedy Walker. I had hoped to take a free military flight from either Andrews Air Force Base or Baltimore -Washington International. Due to last minute commitments, however,  I boarded a commercial flight bound for Amsterdam. Just comfortably enough ensconced in an economy aisle seat to stretch…

If you are like me, this time of year I'm dreaming about vacation. This year I hope to get over to Italy and visit some of my wife's relatives and tour Rome.

But, there are an unlimited number of places to walk, some more famous than others. Last week, the New York Times published "Europe, in 9  Walks" a…

In Fort Lee, New Jersey cops are going undercover to catch drivers who are ignoring pedestrian crossings..

A crosswalk sting has been set up so a plain clothes cop approaches a crosswalk. If the driver fails to slow to allow the cop to another vehicle ahead pulls the  car over and issues a summons.

This town has a history of pedestrian enforcement problems in the past…

Need to organized a few walks on The Liberty Water Gap Trail.

http://www.libertygap.org

Hello Freewalkers, Tomorrow morning I will address the participants at the oldest continuous exclusive Kennedy walk-march event. They asked me to convey our 9 February reprisal of the original Kennedy Walk on the C&O Canal Towpath. I will speak at the start and invite them to attend our Freewalkers-DC , 22-23 November and 9 Feb. Kennedy Walks.  Join me for one of the 29 other Kennedy Marches here in Holland, or those in Ireland, England or South Africa?  

I walk in dedication to…

The human brain’s ability to stay calm and focused is limited and can be overwhelmed by the constant noise and hectic, jangling demands resulting in brain fatigue. With brain fatigue, you are easily distracted, forgetful and mentally flighty. But, an innovative new study from Scotland suggests that you can ease brain fatigue simply by strolling through a…

Volvo just announced two innovations to help protect pedestrians and cyclists. The problem is they will most likely be introduced to the European market first, which is much more concerned about pedestrian safety, if it ever makes it here to the States. Pedestrian Air Bag -  Seven sensors in the grille of…

A recent study by zip car showed that the younger generation would rather give up their car than their computer or cell phone - supporting recent trends that the use of cars on average may be declining. 

Click here to review the…

Be forwarned! Getting inspired is a mixed blessing.

Many of you already know that I was originally inspired to walk extremely long distances by the Kennedy brothers back in 1963. It was a message that they carried and a can-do attitude that anything was possible that caused me to try and walk 50-miles…

Following the popularity of the Walk Score idea of rating a town based on pedestrian amenities, a new mobile and desktop app was recently released to rate more details. Where Walk Score can rate a community, Walkonomics uses a rating…

A study of nearly 20,000 Danish kids between the ages of 5 and 19 found that kids who cycled or walked to school, rather than traveling by car or public transportation, performed measurably better on tasks demanding concentration, such as solving puzzles, and that the effects lasted for up to four hours after they got to school.

The process of getting…

There's a group of urban adventurers that have discovered what we already know.

There's something special in exploring our communities by foot. Maybe they are a little more casual in the way they meander about in New York City, but seems to me they come up with the same conclusions as we FreeWalkers have learned about walking together and…

Starting out in 1953, Mildred Norman changed her name to "Peace Pilgrim" and began a walk that only ended at her death 28 years later in 1981. She walked across America many times and much of Canada. By 1964, she estimated she had walked 25,000 miles and then stopped counting. People took notice.

She gave new meaning to the word minimalist,…

Here's an interesting article about Lancaster, California which has suffered economic downturns but in 2008 created a "Form-based code" that zoned a devastated  downtown for promoting pedestrian traffic and businesses. Now, downtown is called "THE BLVD".

The program has been a success and now town is converting to a 100% solar powered city.…

Do pedestrian walking speeds indicate a city's economic activity? It turns out there's a rather long history of research into the speed of walking in cities, and that the evidence suggests a strong connection between fleetness of foot and fatness of wallet.

For years a theory was held that the size and density of the population led to a "social…

If you've walked HudsonLoop30 or the Hudson River Walkway in Edgewater, a few miles from the GWB, there's a good chance if you looked up in the trees you would see a double-take sight - Parrots flying around and in huge nests in trees. 

It turns out these are Monk parrots, the only breed of 358 parrots that can survive and thrive the harsh New Jersey winters. They do this by…

Here's an interesting article about two different ideas.

"Marchetti's Constant" is a rule applied to transportation issues. The mean amount of time people all over the world spend in everyday transit is about an hour. Based on research by Cesare Marchetti, he found that…

No surprise here! But, some scary news.

Kids have a greater chance of being fatally injured by a car on Halloween than any other day of the year. State Farm®, the nation's leading auto insurer, teamed up with research…

An Australian study found adults who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV.

In fact, every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life…

Did you know that there is an International Walk to School Day? It just occurred Oct 3rd and there was local participation in our nearby towns. Kids from the Montclair Cooperative School celebrated with students and parents marching up the sidewalks to school and will continue walking and biking throughout the month of “WALK-tober”. …