The study, which was published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, "found that the overall health of residents of new housing developments in Western Australia, improved when their daily walking increased as a result of more access to parks, public transport, shops and services."
"The study found that for every local shop, residents' physical activity increased an extra 5-6 minutes of walking per week. For every recreational facility available such as a park or beach, residents' physical activity increased by an extra 21 minutes per week."
"Lead researcher Professor Billie Giles-Corti, Director of the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne said the study provided long-term evidence that residents' walking increased with greater availability and diversity of local transport and recreational destinations."
"The study demonstrates the potential of local infrastructure to support health-enhancing behaviours," she said.
Comments
Walkability
Sometimes I think it makes planners and architects look bad when articles are published that discuss a ten year study stating that walking and designing for walking are key in creating healthy cities. Isn't this just plain common sense?
Walkability
I agree Wesley - why are we continuing to build neighbourhoods that will produce harm: both negative environmental and health harm? As a society as must do better: we need to work alot harder at making better use of our existing infrastructure and optimising integrated land use and transport planning.