mfour

my online space for all learning & discovery

Category: movement

  • Walkability in America : The Luxury of Exploring on Your on Feet

    what to expect: a conversation of walkable cities in the united states, a discussion of cities in general, and the benefits of walkability

    July 1st marks my first year of living in Philadelphia.

    Before Philly, I spent my childhood in the suburbs. Other than the occasional trip into Boston, my lifestyle revolved around the car. I drove to see friends, to get to the store, or to get to school. Some of my friends lived over 25 minutes away, which then felt like nothing. For college, I lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The city is somewhat walkable, but I always felt that neighborhoods were split up by major roadways and traffic. Because of this, I had a car to easily travel to activities, friends, and my part-time job.

    Now within Philadelphia, I only walk or take public transit. I have grown accustomed to a completely new lifestyle without fully realizing it. I had never really thought about how different life became, until I went to Dallas for work. Dallas had it’s charm. It had great food, kind people, and some great spots to go with friends. However, there was not one thing during my week in both Plano and Dallas that I could access on my own two feet. After 5, 10, 15 ubers were ordered, I thought to myself, I have spent more time in a car in the last few days than I have in the past few weeks, even months, in Philly.

    It was one of those moments, like in the gym, when you don’t see your progress day to day, until you see a photo of yourself from months before. I grew up loving to drive. I still think fondly of the rides with my friends, with the windows down and music so loud that today I would wince. I remember thinking I would never live in a city. I loved driving with my friends, I appreciated the convenience and the independence. I realized I didn’t necessarily love driving, it was that my lifestyle required it. Like any city, Philadelphia has it’s issues. But I am forever thankful that I have been introduced into the lifestyle that comes with walkability.

    Walkable Cities as a Campaign Promise

    The former Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, ran for re-election in 2020 with aims of making Paris a 15-minute city. The term, originally coined by Carlos Moreno, a professor at the Paris Sorbonne Business School, was a simple concept: build cities that people can walk, bike, or public transport within 15 minutes to all essential services (Gongadze et al. 2023). Mayor Hidalgo had initiatives around this idea, so that Parisians could have a better quality of life, while being climate-conscious. Her plans involved removed 60,000 parking spots, prioritizing bike lanes, and promoting local business (Speck 2024).

    After she was elected, the city transformed. By 2023, the city had 1,000 kms (621 miles) of biking routes (Gongadze et al. 2023). The city established local community spaces for the neighborhoods, with nurseries and open school yards open on the weekend (Gongadze et al. 2023). This would spark conversations and urban redevelopment across the globe.

    Jeff Speck is an American city planner, writer, and global advocate for walkable cities. With a Masters of Architecture from Harvard and Masters of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, he has co-authored “Suburban Nation,” that explores post-WWII suburban development that led to negative outcomes for the US, such as isolation, traffic, and environmental issues. During a TED talk with host Manoush Zomordori, titled: How can more U.S. cities become more walkable? Here’s one urban planner’s approach,” Speck spoke of the benefits of a walkable city. He led discussing Paris and Anne, and continued into how Portland, Oregon is a model for walkability for the United States. “Portland made a bunch of decisions in the 1970s that began to distinguish it from almost every other American city” (Speck 2024). Portland used a “skinny streets program”, an urban planning approach where streets are created intentionally narrower. This has been seen to cause cars to drive slower and safer, as they navigate the streets. While other cities created large roads and highways, Portland invested in walking and biking infrastructure. They spent $60 million on bike facilities over 30 years. The impact, according to Speck, is the average person drives 20% less than the rest of the country, with their vehicle miles traveled per day peaking in 1996 and dropping ever since.

    Other cities in the United States are attempting to become more walkable, but this is no small feat. You need budget, leadership willingness to make the change, and a large shift in behavior. Speck explains there is criteria for people to choose walking over driving: it must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting.

    Usefulness: Is there housing downtown in the city? Are the offices and job opportunities walking distance from housing? Creating a mixed-used district.

    Safety: Infrastructure, highway design and city design (think bike lanes, side walks, accessbility).

    Comfortable: Speck introduced both the concept of spatial definition and prospect refuge. Spatial definition is … Prospect refuge is the desire to see threats and feel safe from attack.

    Interesting: are there doors/windows into businesses and sight into human activity, parks and recreational facilities. Humans are social primates, “nothing interests us more than other humans” (Speck 2024).

    The Love of the Car

    The behavior shift is not simple, Americans love their cars. The size of the average car is growing at a rate of 1 cm every two years (Transport & Environment 2024). People are increasingly buying sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and light truck vehicles (LTVs) that have higher and blunter front ends that make them more dangerous. One meta-study found that if an adult pedestrian was struck by an SUV, they were 44% more likely to be killed than if the vehicle was a smaller car. For children, it rose 82% higher. Read more about the shift in car size and its implications here.

    It is hard to say whether people truly prefer their cars, or how much of it is due to always being car dependent. Car dependency has become an American norm. In 2021, 91.7% of American households own at least one car and 80% of people feel they have no other option but to use a car (Stahl 2025). The problem is more than just the cars, it is that we have designed our society around them.

    Providing proper public transit allows for increased accessibility across the city, while also providing alternatives that produce less emissions. It needs to be frequent, reliable, and easy to use for people to use as an alternative to automotive travel. Only 1.5% of total trips taken in the US are on buses or trains (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2026). One article titled “How car-loving American cities fell so far behind their global peers on public transit” written by Oliver Milman, explored American cities transportation. There is a need for public transit in order to have walkable cities. Milman introduced one study by Transportation for America, that compared Transit vehicles per 100k inhabitants against the cities population. This was plotted and displayed with the world-class average included, as well as the United States average as benchmarks. See the image here.

    The United States has fallen behind cities around the world where people can rely on extensive, high-quality public transport to get around.

    Oliver Milman

    Cities as Engines of Innovation & Opportunity

    In the 1950s, interstate highways began to cut through major cities and prioritized ease for drivers. The roads spread throughout the country and “plowed into the heart of cities, severing communities, and attracting traffic, prompting the widening of these highways, which then spurs even more traffic” (Milman 2026).

    Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson wrote and published Abundance in March of 2025. The book explores America’s primary problems, going into topics such as the housing crisis, climate change, and the lack of wage growth. In chapter one, Klein and Thompson specifically discuss how cities should be “where wealth is created, not where wealth is displayed.” But cities have become unlivable with “super star cities” or cities that drive the economy, requiring people to commute for hours just to work there. New York City has become a high-end or luxury product. One economist, Ed Glaeser with Harvard University published research about how New York City wages in the 1980s were unusually high compared to cost of living, meaning people benefited from moving to the city. However, after 2000, moving to New York City meant taking a “pay-cut,” as it has become so expensive to live there. Klein and Thompson argue that cities have stopped working as engines of economic mobility for the average American.

    They continued to discuss just how important cities are, from Ed Glaeser’s book Triumph of the City (2011), “Americans who live in metropolitan areas with more than a million residents are, on average, more than 50 percent more productive than Americans who live in smaller metropolitan areas.” This statistic held true even when controlling for education and skills. Cities form communities of interest and industry, which are hard to replicate. Thomson and Klein summarize the idea well when they wrote, “Why not build your AI behemoth somewhere nice to live like Maui or Bali…In theory this arrangement should be possible anywhere. In practice the frontier of ideas is best breached by people who know each other well and work with each other closely, and move between different companies with different cultures and specialities smoothly” (Klein and Thompson 2025). Companies and jobs will continue to place their offices in the places that have the talent and knowledge they seek.

    As cities become more expensive, people are only able to move to the city comfortable if they have lucrative jobs with high-salaries. With two thirds of jobs in the American economy being the local service sector (think nurses, hair stylists, or real estate agents for example), people are unable to try other jobs as easily. This decreases upward mobility, as people are forced to stay in a location with less opportunity, or as Klein and Thompson refer to it as an “economically stagnant zip code” (2025). Further, workers with lower salaries are being forced to move out of the city, which pushes them out of areas with different opportunities. This perpetuates income inequality, as people are pushed further from higher paying job opportunities. Proximity is important, because networking and exposure is important. In Klein and Thompson’s words, people are products of place. With the shift of lower income people being forced out of cities people are forced to live in even less accessible and walkable areas.

    The Benefits of a Walkable City

    The most obvious benefit to a walkable city is physical health. I have experienced first hand the benefits of a lifestyle built around walking. I don’t have a car, so it is built into my day to day. It is built naturally into my day, for groceries, appointments, or to see friends. In the suburbs, It is built into my day to day, walking to the grocery store, to see friends, or to doctors appointments. When I first began to track my steps, when I was in the suburbs my steps came from a conscious effort to get them during my day. Walking in the city provides easy movement into a persons day. One study of California cities found that walkable cities were correlated with lower obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease (Piatkowski & Garrick 2015). As physical activity is a critical determinant for health and well-being, having a lifestyle that involves walking provides benefits to residents.

    One study led by a cross-disciplinary team of Stanford researchers found that a cities walkability impacts the physical activity levels regardless of individual demographics or habits. They used date from 5,400 Americans who relocated between cities with varying walking scores. They found that those who moved to more walkable cities walked on average 1,100 steps more per day. This showed that people, regardless of how active they were already, have shifts in physical behavior (Hamilton 2025). Walking has significant benefits, with numerous studies as evidence.

    Cities that prioritize walking over driving will reduce carbon emissions. Shifting from cars to public transportation and walking can reduce up to 2 tons of carbon emissions annually per individual (United Nations, n.d).1

    Additionally, walking makes me interact more with my community. Rather than taking a car to and from work, I take the train. Walking to the train and in the station, I run into various people in the city or who I work with. Being around people leads to more social interactions throughout my day. By walking, I have more time spent outdoors, especially being in a city with ample parks and walking trails. Within walking distance there are countless local businesses, stores, coffee shops, and new food. I am able to explore various neighborhoods and have a naturally active lifestyle. With the city at my fingertips, new people and experiences are too.

    Works Cited

    Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2026). Chapter 2: Passenger travel. U.S. Department of Transportation. https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/Chapter-2-Passenger-Travel/3t3v-vpmv

    Glaeser, E. L. (2005). Urban colossus: Why is New York America’s largest city? (Working Paper No. WP05-05). Taubman Center for State and Local Government, Harvard Kennedy School. https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/taubman/files/Glaeser_05_Colossus.pdf

    Glaeser, E. L. (2011). Triumph of the city: How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier. Penguin Press.

    Gongadze, S., & Maassen, A. (2023, January 25). Paris’ vision for a ’15-minute city’ sparks a global movement. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/paris-15-minute-city

    Hamilton, K. (2025, August 13). Walkable cities boost daily activity by an average of 1,100 steps. Stanford Report. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/08/walkable-cities-walk-score-daily-movement-steps-research

    Milman, O. (2026, May 6). How car-loving American cities fell so far behind their global peers on public transit. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/06/american-cities-cars-public-transportation

    Piatkowski, D., & Garrick, N. (2015). Community design, street networks, and public health. Journal of Transport & Health, 1(4), 326–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2014.06.002

    Ray, J., Fleming, B., Higashide, S., Mangan, E., Lample, K., Lillehei, X., Noisecat, J., McElwee, S., & Aldana Cohen, D. (2020, March). Voters want a better transit system for America. Data for Progress; Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology; Transportation for America; TransitCenter; Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative. https://www.filesforprogress.org/memos/gnd-for-transit-polling.pdf

    Stahl, M. (2025, January 30). Explainer series #11: Car dependency. Sustainable Princeton. https://www.sustainableprinceton.org/explainer-series-11-car-dependency/

    Transport & Environment. (2024, January 22). Ever-wider: Why large SUVs don’t fit, and what to do about it. https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/ever-wider-why-large-suvs-dont-fit-and-what-to-do-about-it

    United Nations. (n.d.). Your guide to climate action: Transport. Act Now. Retrieved July 19, 2026, from https://www.un.org/en/actnow/transport

    Walker, P. (2026, June 20). SUV buyers undeterred by warning ricks of pedestrians, UK study finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/suv-risks-warnings-road-safety-buyers-uk-study

    Zomorodi, M. (Host). (2024, March 22). How can more U.S. cities become more walkable? Here’s one urban planner’s approach [Radio broadcast transcript]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1239552997

    Additional Information

    Health Benefits to Walkking

    Harvard Health Publishing. (2023, December 7). 5 surprising benefits of walking. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-aging-and-longevity/5-surprising-benefits-of-walking

    Ungvari, Z., Fazekas-Pongor, V., Csiszar, A., & Kunutsor, S. K. (2023). The multifaceted benefits of walking for healthy aging: From Blue Zones to molecular mechanisms. GeroScience, 45(6), 3211–3239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-00873-8

  • A Guide To Goal Setting in the New Year

    what to expect: what i recommend to achieve new years resolutions in 2026

    December is a time for celebrating the Holiday’s with family and friends. It can be a deep breath after a year of hard work. This past year was a stressful one that took a lot of strength and resilience. While people are out of office, or on a much needed break between semesters of school, it is the perfect time to set intentions for the year to come.

    I appreciate the time of year to refresh my goals and vision, spending time reflecting and imagining.

    Reflection: The Key to Goal Setting

    The first step before I set goals for the New Year is having an open and honest reflection of my current state. It allows you to gain insight to move forward, appreciating where you are while also recognizing areas that you have room to grow.

    One journaling exercise is the four interior empires. The idea, originally introduced in “The 5 AM Club” by Robin Sharma, is your mindset, healthset, heartset, and soulset.

    The mindset focuses on personal development, learning, and growth. This is things like daily journaling, podcasts, writing, and other creative outlets.

    The healthset is all things physical. Working out, movement in general, sleep, hygiene and what we eat or drink.

    Our heartset is emotional well-being and relationships. The connections we have to other people and are ability to process and handle emotions.

    Lastly, our soulset is our belief in ourselves and purpose. This can be our value, outside of our external appearence or material items.

    These four quadrants make up ourselves. Draw a circle and split it into these four quadrants. Anything written inside the circle are things you do that focus on each empire. Anything outside of the circle is things you don’t do, or things that may have a negative impact on that area.

    picture information from here

    After filling in your sheet, try to rate from 0-25% for each quadrant. These four quadrants make up your whole 100% self. It is important to note that you cannot fulfill yourself with just one. While you may be fulfilled your fitness goals, hitting the gym, eating clean, and doing all the right things, you cannot reach 100%. You still have 75% of yourself. It is a reflection that can call attention to areas that you may be neglecting. This acts as a great eagle eye view of where you are thriving and where you can grow.

    Envision Your Future Self

    The next exercise you can do alongside the four interior empires is envisioning a future version of yourself. What values do they possess? How do they spend their time ? What do they have?

    I started by writing a list of things that my future self would say. Here are some examples: I prioritize my health, I eat whole foods, and I train consistently, not obsessively. I am a lifelong student. I make service a priority. I don’t need to drink to have fun, I have genuine relationships, and I say no when I need to re-charge. I have a unique and comfy space and I spend money on experiences more than things. By envisioning my future self, I have created a list of my values. Now try to connect these values and future state with actionable goals.

    Our goals can be long-term, medium-term, or short-term. With the reflection we have just completed, we are better able to set the standard for 2026.*

    *Set the Standard, a phrase I got directly from Nick Bare.

    Forward Think, Backwards Plan

    Then plan backwards. By imagining your end goal, you can then set up your week or months to create actionable steps to get there. What are the incremental changes that will get you there.

    If you are in the process of trying to better yourself, I highly recommend reading James Clear Atomic Habits. The book acts as a guide through bettering yourself every single day. In his words “small habits, when repeated consistently, lead to remarkable results.” A big downfall to New Year’s Resolutions, is that people set goals that are extreme and unsustainable. This leads to an “all-or-nothing mindset,” that when you make one small mistake or miss one day, that suddenly it is not worth it at all.

    The little things, really are the big things. Creating a set of daily habits that your future self would do can make a huge difference in achieving your goals.

    Building a habit takes time, with studies ranging from as short as 21 days to as long as five months, with the median being 59-66 days (Singh et al 2024). It is far from sexy to build a habit, it can be uncomfortable and unnatural. However, habits are everything to achieve your goals. You want to get in the gym, you have to create habits that align with being a person that does. The closer you align your habits with someone that does go to the gym, the more you associate your identity as someone who is fit and active. Identity has profound power in shaping habits.

    Currently, some habits I hold and recommend are: making your bed daily, reading for 20 minutes (at least), walk 10K steps, sleep eight hours, tidy up 10 mins before bed, skincare at night, and journal. The habits I am looking to build are to : hit my protein goal each day, drink 12 cups (~96 ounces) of water a day and begin waking up at 5 AM. These lists are not exhaustive, but you can use them as inspiration for some of yours.

    The FourMs in Goals: Markets, Money, Movement, and Mind

    Specific to the four areas this blog encapsulates, there are goals I want to focus on in the new year.

    For markets, I want to challenge myself to dive further into complex topics. I want to continue reading, however incorporate note-taking, and writing about said topics here. Mind or mentally, I want to keep taking active steps to understand and regulate my emotions, as well as continue to grow my positive mindset through journaling, therapy, and creative outlets. I strive to decenter technology from my hobbies as much as possible, while still fostering the knowledge tech allows me to access.

    For movement, as always I want to increase by aerobic and anaerobic endurance while also gaining strength. I want to have movement that promotes longevity and health, while also being an outlet for stress relief and enjoyment.

    For all goals related to fitness, I recommend changing any aesthetic goals to functional goals. When I was younger, I approached the gym as a way to change my body. I strived to be smaller, and struggled to get myself to the gym. I typically went, did cardio and abs, and saw little results. It was a form of self-loathing almost, always trying to change myself with each trip. I would tell myself, if I do 10 more minutes of cardio, then I will be that much better looking. No wonder I hated the gym.

    The most important aspect of fitness is consistency. Nick Barre, CEO of Bare Performance Nutrition always says, “It is better to do good consistently than great sometimes.” This quote has always resonated with me greatly. Progress in the gym comes from years of going to the gym consistently.

    Having functional goals makes the gym exciting and have purpose. I really enjoy to challenge myself physically, so I want to eventually do a Hyrox competition. I hope to run farther, and faster, as well as get my first pull up.

    Gym goals are great when you have a community. If you have someone you share your fitness goals with that you see often or can workout with, they can act as your accountability buddy. This will keep you energized and motivated, as you will build off each others progress.

    Lastly, money. I want to work towards my financial goals, investing time into my financial literacy.

    (all opinions are my own)

    When I first began investing in high school, I did what most competitive little sisters do, I bragged to my sister about my new knowledge. It was some of my first conversations around money. My sister and I have had conversations recently about personal finance; I encouraged her to invest, but the conversation usually resulted in her discomfort. She would joke when I talked about personal finance that she would one day “live in my pool house.” She always said money conversations would stress her out.

    Now looking back to when I first began talking to her about money, I did not know much of what I was talking about, but the importance was that I began. Over the years after, I committed time and effort to learning about personal finance. My sister held a fear that many relate to, that they don’t have the knowledge to invest. Fear of money prevents people from financial freedom and opportunity.

    What is Financial Literacy and what does it look like?

    According to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy in 2008 is the “ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being.”

    Financial literacy is feeling confidence in your budget, spending, and saving. It is knowing your options and deciding between them. It is devoting time to set goals and backwards plan. It is talking and thinking about money with your loved ones. It is created financial boundaries, and doing things that cause you the least stress.

    In my opinion, the first thing you can do, is put this prompt into ChatGPT. “I am X years old, I have Y forms of income, and Z outstanding debt. Give me all the financial considerations at my age with these goals…”. For me, AI is a great starting point, use this list to then find primary sources from knowledgable individuals. Always, always, take AI recommendations with a grain of salt. I viewed the first response as a way to get my brain moving, and the rest was doing my own research.

    The list of considerations I look into on a regular basis: income, budgeting, debt (credit cards, student loans, car loans, or private loans to name a few), insurance/healthcare, taxes, investing, and retirement planning.

    Plan one monthly date with yourself. During this time, treat yourself to a comforting food item or fun drink and open up your various accounts. Look through how you are spending and saving. Set some financial goals and going through various resources.

    some resources I have found helpful:

    Financial Feminist was the very podcast I have listened to about this subject, and I highly recommend checking out her content. I recently watched the Youtube video below that covered the major topics. She lives in Canada so this has a few different elements (tax-free investing in Canada has different names).

    Beginning to take time to understand your personal finances and set goals is essential to your livelihood and well-being. There is so much content online, so try to always fact-check and talk to friends/families/peers! Money can be scary, but begin to talk and interact with financial literacy topics to make it less daunting.

    works referenced

    Clear, James. (2018). Atomic habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones . Penguin: Avery.

    President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. (2008). 2008 annual report to the President. U.S. Department of the Treasury.

    Financial Literacy and Education Commission

    Singh, B., Murphy, A., Maher, C., & Smith, A. E. (2024). Time to form a habit: A systematic review and meta-analysis of health behaviour habit formation and its determinants. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 12(23), 2488. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12232488

  • The Start of M-FOUR

    Hi, I’m Megan! I just entered the work force this past July after finishing college. At 22, I have a lot to learn, and I wanted a space to put it all down. Stepping into full-time work made me realize how important it is to keep creating and learning in new areas. This will be a space for all my passion projects and reflections, across the four spaces I love most: markets and investing, movement and lifting, mental health and well-being, and personal finance. Follow along as I learn, grow, and share.

    The Four Ms

    Mind

    Mental and spiritual health has always been a focus in my adult life. The established pillars that I prioritize first are movement, social connectivity, nutrition, and sleep. This space is dedicated to exploring habits, routines, personal reflection, and overall mental well-being.

    Markets and Money

    Money and commerce are a force that drive us, shaping both what we value and how deeply we value it. What we exchange to improve our lives, is impacted by the markets and our use of money. Whether buying your first home, finding a job, or investing for retirement, we all depend on the market. This portion of the blog is centered on the understanding of our financial systems and news (markets), and then our personal decisions (money).

    How we interact and make decisions is a lifelong learning that I am far from completing. In my opinion we never get it necessarily right, we just get it less and less wrong.

    Movement

    My love for movement started with strength training back in high school. Over time, it has grown into something much broader, from rock climbing with friends to hiking in a new place. Movement is important for my daily routine, as a way to a manage stress and a key to my long-term health. I will use this space to talk about progress, setbacks, and rewards that come from an active lifestyle.