by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.23.10
April recently wrote Bike-Happy, Ped-Friendly Cities Less Obese, but how do they get that way? George Monbiot writes that "We are, to a surprising extent, what the built environment makes us," quoting a series of studies which show trees make us more social, quiet areas are friendlier and vegetation reduces crime. He also notes the relationship between urban planning and body mass index: Where settlements are dense (and therefore able to support public transport) and close to shops, work places and recreation places, people are more likely to walk and cycle and less likely to be fat.
Build loose suburbs carved up by busy roads and without green spaces and you help to create a population of fat, lonely people plagued by criminals. Build dense, leafy settlements with mixed uses, protected from traffic, and you help to create safe, fit and friendly communities. Natasha Singer puts it more simply in the New York Times: It's the environment, stupid. When there are no parks within easy walking distance, when every kid has to be bused or driven to school, when they are surrounded by six lane arterial and need a lift to go anywhere, it is no surprise that they are getting fat and their parents are getting stressed driving them everywhere. It is difficult to eat a balanced diet when corn and soybeans are subsidized; The price of a Big Mac, adjusted for inflation, fell 5.44% in the last decade while fruits and vegetables increased by 17%. The real problem is a landscape littered with inexpensive fast-food meals; saturation advertising for fatty, sugary products; inner cities that lack supermarkets; and unhealthy, high-stress workplaces. More in the New York Times |
