Planning for Fitness in Oklahoma City

Six years ago, the 620-square-mile city had not one bike lane and forty McDonald's franchises.

2 minute read

November 19, 2015, 10:00 AM PST

By Emily Calhoun


When Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett read that his hometown topped a list of America's fattest cities, he challenged himself and the city to collectively lose one million pounds.

"I was seeing how we had designed the city around the automobile. No one walked anywhere—we didn’t have sidewalks to any great extent in the suburbs," Cornett told Men's Fitness. "Our inner city grade schools didn’t even have gymnasiums. That was the culture that we had created for ourselves."

The mayor hired Jeff Speck to advise him on what could be done. Speck determined that the city had twice as many car lanes as it needed. Further, the one-way system of highways encouraged high speeds and severely impacted walkability. The mayor recognized that the city's health problems were directly related to the walkability problem.

In addition to building a convention center and other capital improvement projects, MAPS 3, as it is called, would pay to address the city's obesity epidemic by building bike lanes, sidewalks and health and wellness facilities as well as a downtown public transit system. Instead of a soda tax, which would have been politically unpopular in such a conservative town, the citizens of Oklahoma City agreed to finance the project partially through the extension of an expiring sales tax program for a period of seven years.

"The experiment is unusual in terms of its ambition, breadth and cost, all of which take it beyond anything being attempted by other American cities in the fight against fat," reports Ian Birell.

The city reached is goal of losing one million pounds, and the mayor shed nearly forty himself. The once-dilapidated downtown district went from having one hotel to fifteen.

However, Birrell is cautiously optimistic. "Yet the key question is whether even such valiant and wide-ranging efforts can dent such a huge health problem, one needlessly killing so many people on the planet."

Thursday, October 15, 2015 in Huffington Post

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 7, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

People biking along beach path with moored ship in San Diego, California.

San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan

The plan provides a comprehensive framework for making San Diego’s transportation network more multimodal, accessible, and sustainable.

May 2, 2025 - SD News

Front of Walmart store with sign.

Walmart Announces Nationwide EV Charging Network

The company plans to install electric car chargers at most of its stores by 2030.

May 7, 2025 - Inc.

Pump station with blue pipes coming out of concrete wall in Seattle, Washington.

Seattle Builds Subway-Sized Tunnel — for Stormwater

The $700 million ‘stormwater subway’ is designed to handle overflows during storms, which contain toxic runoff from roadways and vehicles.

7 hours ago - City Observatory

Sign for Deschutes National Forest in Oregon.

Feds Clear Homeless Encampment in Oregon Forest

The action displaced over 100 people living on national forest land near Bend, Oregon.

May 13 - The New York Times

Seeing the Better City

Is This Urbanism?

Chuck Wolfe ponders a recommended subscription list of Substack urbanists and wonders — as have others — about the utility of the "urbanist" moniker.

May 13 - Resurgence: A Journey via Substack

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.