THIS author wasn’t sure whether to laugh or feel a little embarrassed when reading this headline: "Malaysians and Indonesians crowned the laziest walkers in the world."
Believe it or not, this isn’t some internet joke. It’s a proper global study by Stanford University, which ranked countries based on how little their people walk.
The only silver lining? Indonesia came out on top, while Malaysia landed in third place... luckily.
The study involved 717,000 people across 111 countries, using data to calculate the average number of steps taken per person each day.
Indonesians averaged just 3,531 steps a day, way below the global average of around 5,000 steps.
Malaysia didn’t do much better, with 3,963 steps per day, earning us a spot in the top three of this list.
Honestly, this author isn’t surprised Malaysians were labelled as lazy walkers. It’s not far from the truth.
At the office, people want to get a parking spot right by the entrance. A slightly longer walk? Cue the complaints.
The study also pointed out some key reasons behind our low step count.
Among the issues is that sidewalks are often blocked by motorcycles, vendors, or worse, they don’t even exist in some places.
And let’s face it, in both Indonesia and Malaysia, motorcycles and cars tend to take priority (over pedestrians).
But let’s not put all the blame on the people. Our blazing hot weather doesn’t exactly encourage strolling around either.
Sweating buckets isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. If you happen to bump into PMX, do us all a favour. Tell him it’s time to make Malaysia a pedestrian-friendly country.