Kaid Benfield

Don’t they get walkability?

Director, Sustainable Communities and Smart Growth, NRDC; co-founder, Sep 03, 10.

Tagged with transit, sprawl, walkability, public health, obesity, inactivity

With the exception of some real heroes in the field such as Dick Jackson and Howie Frumkin, I simply Can Not Get public health advocates interested in how the shape of the built environment affects health. I’ve been trying for at least a decade. The field, at least in the environmental community, is built on toxicity of substances and emissions, not environmental factors affecting fitness. So it simply is not a matter of professional expertise or interest to my health-advocate friends. And that’s a real shame, because their presence in the debate could make such a difference.

Research proves that sprawl is significantly associated with inactivity and obesity, now perhaps the nation’s foremost public health menace. The results of overweight and obesity include increased coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, liver and Gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, osteoarthritis, and gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility). Research also shows that walkable neighborhoods and transit improve fitness and the health of communities. Sure sounds important to me.

Finding the synergies between, say, smart growth and health to forge a more holistic approach to our environmental well-being is what sustainable communities should be about, in my humble opinion. I’m not going to stop trying.

Story: Why doesn’t the public health community get it about walkability?
Source: NRDC Switchboard, September, 1, 2010

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