Plan your routes

The lily pads at Singapore Botanic Gardens' Ginger Garden beckoning for us to take the leap across

Singapore is one of the best cities to walk in, so why don’t we take better advantage of it? Sure, it can get excruciatingly hot sometimes, but no one's asking you to take a midday walk under the blazing sun. Besides, that's what the trees (2 million planted along roadsides alone) are for -- throwing shade. 

Did you know, if you substituted 1 out of 10 car trips with walking in a year, you'd save 460kg of carbon dioxide? That’s approximately nine round trips by air from Singapore to Bali.

So how can you use technology to help with this? 

Tip no. 1

MAP IT OUT

I use Google Maps or Apple Maps (depending on which city I'm in) to plan my routes. In some cities in the States, you can use Apple Maps to plan your route indoors (because the malls and airports are too darn big). 

In order for Tip no. 1 to work well, it's important to use Tip. no. 2...

Our dog, Timber, loves long walks in the park. Thank goodness. 

Tip no. 2

CHECK THE WEATHER

The worst scenario is when you’ve planned a good walking route and the sky decides to let it rip. You jump into any cab you can flag down, and it happens to be the biggest one on the road (true story).  

I use the iPhone's Weather app to make sure the climate is right for my plans. 

Bonus Tip 

STEP IT UP

On top of that,  because my phone never leaves my side, I figured I could use my separation anxiety positively: the in-built Health app tracks the number of steps I've taken, distance I've walked or ran, flights climbed and active energy used. 

The verdict: I could definitely do more.