FINALLY, someone put into words how NYers feel about pedestrian tourists!

If I could put this on a bumper sticker I would (on a really long bumper)(I know it's about walking so why put it on a car, but it's more a mantra thing) or on a poster all over NYC in the summer and during the winter holidays.

ARG! Maybe I won't walk home from work today....I do weave quite well though....

These are my two new favorite paragraphs ever written (maybe):

“Walking speed absolutely reflects health status,” Simonsick says. So when you irritatedly blow past a trio of ambling visitors from Ohio or Iowa on the subway platform, you’re not just being an obnoxious New Yorker. You’re demonstrating that you’re going to outlive them—and enjoy better health while they slowly degrade.

The thing is, as Simonsick points out, New York is literally designed to force people to walk, to climb stairs—and to do it quickly. Driving in the city is maddening, pushing us onto the sidewalks and up and down the stairs to the subways. What’s more, our social contract dictates that you should move your ass when you’re on the sidewalk, so as not to annoy your fellow walkers. (A recent ranking of cities found that New York has the fastest pedestrians in the country.) As Simonsick sees it, the very structure of the city coerces us to exercise far more than people elsewhere in the U.S., in a way that is strongly correlated with a far-better life expectancy. Every city block doubles as a racewalking track, every subway station, a StairMaster. Seen this way, the whole city looks like a massive exercise machine dedicated to improving our health while we run errands.

-By Clive Thompson, NY Magazine: Why New Yorkers Last Longer

I do love that the way NYers walk makes us healthier! Starbucks in hand, bag on shoulder, watch-out other people on the sidewalk...