Navigation apps may be quietly discouraging commuters from walking, but a new proof-of-concept study suggests that changing those built-in defaults could unlock surprising health gains--without adding a single minute to travel time.

By adjusting walking distance thresholds in trip-planning models, researchers found that most commuters could incorporate an average of nine extra minutes of walking while still arriving at work at the same time.

The project was developed at Israel's Bar-Ilan University as part of Prof. Jonathan Rabinowitz's More Walking Project, in collaboration with the Israeli Smart Transportation Research Centre (ISTRC). Rabinowitz, from the university's Weisfeld School of Social Work, said the findings point to a simple but powerful behavioural shift. "This means you can

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