Please, please be careful.

Welcome to walking as fitness.

This is a podcast of action providing a little extra motivation to help you keep that fitness promise you made to yourself.

Hi, I'm Dave. I've been walking for fitness since 2013 averaging about 21,000

steps a day. I'm walking right now and I would love to have you join me for the next 10 minutes.

The number of people killed who were walking and hit by a vehicle has been steadily going up.

That number had actually been dropping for years prior to 2009 and then that year

things have trended a little more ominously. And it probably makes sense when you think about it.

It's about when step trackers started to become more popular,

which I think has motivated more of us to

use walking as a fitness activity to get out and walk more. It's also, when you think about it, it's about

when smartphones began increasing in popularity. And it's not only dangerous to drive distracted

while looking at your phone, texting.

It also can be a danger to walk distracted.

And so today I want to return to a topic that we've touched on before,

and we'll certainly continue to touch on from time to time,

and that is walking safely.

And this was brought home recently,

less than a mile from where we live,

someone who was walking, was hit by a vehicle, and died.

And I don't know all the details of this particular accident.

I do know that intersections and walking at night make you more vulnerable.

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