Fighting Obesity With Design

7 February 2010 - 5:00am

Last week, five NYC departments released a new publication on "Active Design Guidelines," presenting ways to address public health considerations through the built environment. Urban Omnibus takes a look.

Samir Shah writes, "When reading through the actual text, I was struck by its common sense. The guidelines are organized by scale of design intervention, from urban planning down to architectural details, and can be implemented with the aid of checklists. On the whole, there was nothing very new, nothing very radical. From the perspective of a design professional, they seem almost obvious. These guidelines, however, are meant for a wider audience."

The original publication can be downloaded here.

Source: Urban Omnibus, February 3, 2010
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How might instant, near-home car rental allow households to give up a third or second car? Would the substantial savings a household receives from owning and maintaining fewer cars more than compensate for the extra time and discomfort spent riding transit?