The Dark Side Of Sprawl

24 October 2001 - 1:00pm

Christine Kreyling looks at the relationship between the car culture and obesity. She explains why it is important for land use planners to consider the health hazards of sprawl.

"When land use is segregated into nodes that require an automobile to connect them, when subdivisions lack sidewalks, when transportation systems privilege the big road and the long car trip, it doesn't take a scientific genius to figure out that we're discouraged from walking...Those who see a link between obesity and low-density suburban-style development note that the South, where the CDC found the greatest increase in obesity in the 1990s, also experienced the nation's greatest increase in suburban--as opposed to urban--population."

Source: Nashville Scene, October 24, 2001
Bookmark and Share
Under the proposal, the government would assign the populace the task of counting and mapping dog droppings as a first step to greater penalties for owners who fail to clean up after their mutts.