Walk more, eat less in the urban landscape of the future

If you mock at mall-walkers, think again – there is an upside to it. Deborah Lindsay Williams writes

Eating less and walking more would combat obesity, heart disease, energy consumption and pollution. Fatima Al Marzooqi / The National.

Before moving to Abu Dhabi, I used to mock mall-walkers. But a few weeks ago at Yas Mall, there I was, ticking off steps on my Fitbit while my son and his friends were at the movies. There’s an upside, I have to say, to your teenage son forbidding you from attending the same movie he’s seeing: about 16,000 steps of an upside, to be precise.

In my previous life as a New Yorker, walking wasn’t exercise, it was just how I got around town. As huge as it is, New York is a walking city: you can find almost anything you want, from barbers to butchers to banks, by walking for 15 minutes in any direction. I tried to continue the habit of walking to do my errands when we lived in downtown Abu Dhabi. But in Abu Dhabi, a city that seems to have been designed for cars rather than people, walking to get the day’s necessities was almost impossible, and occasionally life-threatening, at least until I figured out how to negotiate those pedestrian crossings at the free right-hand turn lane.

Next week is Abu Dhabi’s Sustainability Week (ADSW), and although there is something ironic about people flying here from all over the world to discuss sustainable energy policies, the goals of ADSW – renewable energy and sustainable development – are certainly worthwhile. These essential discussions got an early kick off (pedal off?) with The National’s #cycletoworkuae initiative earlier this week. If you took part, maybe you discovered that while you were slightly sweaty when you arrived at the office, you were also more cheerful: it’s hard to be grumpy on a bike. Maybe you enjoyed, as I always do, the sense of freedom that comes from gliding past cars lined up bumper-to-bumper at the traffic lights.

I know from experience, however, that it can be terrifying to pedal alongside the drivers who populate Abu Dhabi’s streets. When I ride my bike here I sometimes think that some drivers see me as a moving target in an automotive video game. So as a solution to bike-phobia or for anyone who wants to make even a small change for the better, I have an elegantly simple proposal: walk more, eat less.

This slogan, which I cannot take credit for because (irony alert) I saw it on a car bumper sticker, isn't catchy enough to earn celebrity endorsements. And true, it's a proposal that only works in places where driving and overeating are possible in the first place. But think about it: eating less and walking more would combat obesity, heart disease, energy consumption and pollution. Walking demands no fancy equipment or naff jersey emblazoned with the name of a sports drink. Just get up and go. In a world where there are so many things we can't control, our physical health and the health of the world around us are two things over which we can exert some power.

Walking improves both health and air quality: it lowers the risk of heart disease and takes a polluting car off the road. Given these benefits, it’s a depressing fact that most of us now live in places where cars are given priority over people and where, in fact, the most pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood may be the mall.

Yas Mall highlights its neighbourhood idea by organising itself with “streets” leading to a “town square” that’s covered by a glass roof. The mall’s design echoes what is sometimes called “the new urbanism”, which advocates for urban spaces designed around people rather than cars: open public space, walkable shopping districts, housing districts with pavements.

Malls do solve the weather problem, I suppose. No matter if it’s too hot, too cold, too sunny, too sandy. Simply tie up your trainers and head to the “town square”. Make sure you’re striding rather than shopping, and please, just this once, don’t drive to the mall. Take the bus.

Deborah Lindsay Williams is a professor of literature at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her novel The Time Locket (written as Deborah Quinn) is now available on Amazon