The Importance of Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure
Pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure is a part of transportation, whether some elected officials like it or not. In this piece from Citiwire, Neal Peirce writes that this fact is becoming increasingly clear.
"A top new argument: obesity. A stunning 34 percent of adult Americans are currently obese, another 32 percent clearly overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Excessive weight now causes more deaths than smoking. If the fat crisis can’t be dealt with, rising levels of heart disease and diabetes will assuredly swamp the nation’s efforts to reduce spiraling health costs.
What’s the answer? Yes, diet. But more physical activity, too. We’ve allowed autos to carry us everywhere, even walkable distances of less than a mile (and even, in many cases, to the gym)! Our bodies fatten inexorably. One estimate of the country’s annual medical bill for physical inactivity: $117 billion."
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- Does Living in a Poor Neighborhood Harm Your Health? - Nov 19, 2011
- Another Look at Bicycle Advocacy - Sep 19, 2011
- In Chicago, a Holistic Approach to Bicycle Planning - Jul 24, 2011
- Quantifying Health Costs Of Auto-Dependency - Jun 02, 2010
- LaHood's Bicycle Ambitions for the U.S. - Apr 28, 2010
Planetizen picks
Contribute
- NY Times Defends the Port Authority
- Expanding the Hong Kong Subway, One Blast at a Time
- Can An Electric Bike Replace A Car?
- The Growing Popularity of Women-Only Mass Transit
- Putting the Bloom Back on the Rose Bowl
- Friday Funny: Smellvertising, Coming to a Bus Stop Near You
- Senate Yeas While House Nays on Transportation
- Seeing a Bright Side to the Architecture Meltdown
- Super Slim Me?
- Why NASA's Spectacular Image of the Earth is So Disturbing
Volunteerism Plays Critical Role in Reaching World’s Millennium Development Goals
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Feb 10, 2012
Web Seminar: Economic Development in a Digital World: Home-Based Businesses and Virtual Workers
International Economic Development Council
Feb 08, 2012
www.flickr.com
|
The Importance of Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure
gmhendo
A small book...
Engwitch, D. 1992, Towards an eco-city:calming the traffic, Southward Press, Marrickville NSW Australia. ISBN 0 85881 062 X
...offers fabulous insight into how the auto has shaped our cities, societies and lives.
Whilst the car is not totally responsible for obesity (we are in control of our lives - aren't we?) is is heavily implicated. So is television, the internet and so-called gaming.
With all respect to the author, to draw attention to the importance of bike and pedestrian infrastructure without considering the other factors at play (I only listed a few) leaves too much unspoken.