If you're comparing the average survey respondent to your average independently wealthy 19th century author, there's a few pretty obvious reasons why people with normal jobs don't aimlessly walk all the time - such as a job and the appeal of aimlessly driving, which I'm sure scratches nearly the same itch.

He's either on a leash (by law) pulling relentlessly, or he's free, needing vigilant watch. It's perfectly doable having him walk next to you, but he's still stressing out at everything and it seeps into your bones.

Might be many would benefit from taking walks like you do, I run instead, no patience for walking, but I probably should if only for the benefit of learning to be more patient.

The idea of doing something so unproductive and slow is really hard to get over, though.

One of the suggestions in the article is the walk mindfully. Unless you're familiar with usages of that term, it's not immediately clear what that means:

It's effectively suggesting meditation through walking. You shouldn't be able to take two steps without finding something marginally interesting to consider. That doesn't mean to write it down for later study, but just let it fill your mind for a moment, and then move on to the next interesting thing.

Walking is about getting to know the world by moving through it. That's a lot harder to do at the speed of a jog.

Most places in the world are pretty safe actually, and dangers live mostly inside our heads.

Until now, I never had any negative experiences, anywhere in the world because of walking. I'm male, though, I guess that's quite significant in many places.