Common sense wins most arguments, especially if a guy like Lawrence Frank is working the case.
Frank is an associate professor of urban planning at the University of British Columbia and leading researcher in a budding field that examines how the “built environment” of a community affects the physical activity levels of people who live there. What Frank discussed at the recent Congress for the New Urbanism in Washington, D.C., was both intriguing and persuasive.
He revealed the preliminary results from a study of 12,000 Atlanta-area residents who live in either low-density, mostly suburban environments or the high-density, mixed-use areas most frequently found in cities. The hypothesis is that people in low-density areas tend to drive or ride more often because of the suburban sprawl while urbanites would likely walk or ride a bike.
Frank found that 68 percent of white Atlanta men living in low-density areas were overweight compared with 50 percent in high-density zones. The pattern held for white women and African-American men, but there was not enough black female participation to be statistically significant. An estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults are now classified as overweight.
Frank is the first to say “suburban sprawl doesn’t in itself make you fat” but does suggest that “if you choose to live in a sprawling environment, you are more likely to be overweight.”
Along with two colleagues, including Thomas Schmid of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Frank supports his arguments in a new book, “Health and Community Design” (Island Press, $30). The book is highly recommended for urban planners and anyone serious about fighting obesity in this country, which clearly is no longer an odd pairing.
“The focus on public health in urban design and community is much newer than, say, economic impact,” said Jan Metzger, co-director of the Chicagoland Transportation and Air Quality Commission, a coalition of 180 organizations that study such issues as traffic flows and why in the world suburban subdivisions are ever built without sidewalks. “It’s encouraging to see the coming together of people’s health and urban design.”
As you might imagine, Metzger has some favorite statistics. One is that the State of Illinois spends 1 percent of its federal transportation funds on pedestrian and bicyclist projects and less than 1 percent on pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The unfortunate punchline is that 13.5 percent of people killed in road accidents each year are pedestrians or cyclists.
“We tend to use the funds to prevent fender-benders,” she said. “We are protecting cars, not people.”
Metzger offered potential solutions during a recent interview. You like that in a community activist: providing answers rather than simply layering on the criticism.
More Top Picks Best Shower Filters For Well Water
For example, she described a bill before the state legislature that would require any new road built to address all travelers on it, including walkers and bike riders.
Another idea popping up in Chicago neighborhoods is helping to slow traffic in shopping districts and on walk-to-school routes. Crosswalks are being accented by scoring the street to look like a brick walkway, which is then painted a reddish buff color.
“You can also bump out a curb a little bit to decrease the radius at a corner,” said Metzger. “Research shows drivers will naturally slow down when the turn is tighter.”
Safer routes to school represent a passion for Metzger and others at the intersection of public health and urban planning. She doesn’t see the wisdom in making school administrators worry about parents who double-park when dropping off children or requiring local police departments to provide crossing guards.
“We do an awful lot of expensive compensation for not doing the job right in the first place,” she said. “Planning our communities has to be a lot more than creating the fastest throughways for car traffic.”
Metzger made a salient point about how walkers and bicyclists are clearly out among the community while drivers, even those who live nearby, can be “isolated and alienated decision makers” whipping through our streets.
Some examples: Those motorists who regularly honk at crossing guards for taking too long to get back to their curbs. Drivers who routinely drive around school buses with stop signs flapped outward and taillights flashing. Parents who drop off their 2nd and 3rd graders by opening the street-side door and having the kids dash across in the middle of the street, expecting approaching traffic to take notice (including, perhaps, the agitated driver who just honked at the crossing guard).
“On the sidewalk you can make eye contact with other people,” said Metzger. “You become part of the community.”
And you might just avoid being part of a public health epidemic.
———-
E-mail Bob Condor at [email protected]. Send health and fitness news to [email protected].