Is there a connection between the shape of our cities and the shape of our bodies? That’s the question posited by Ben Harder in Science News Online. Harder describes the debate this way:
…Researchers have evidence that associates health problems with urban sprawl, a loose term for humanmade landscapes characterized by a low density of buildings, dependence on automobiles, and a separation of residential and commercial areas. [University of British Columbia professor Lawrence] Frank proposes that sprawl discourages physical activity, but some researchers suggest that people who don’t care to exercise choose suburban life. Besides working to settle that disagreement, researchers are looking at facets of urban design that may shortchange health.
Frank’s research team estimates that a typical white male living in a compact, mixed-use community weighs about 10 pounds less than a similar man in a diffuse subdivision containing nothing but homes.
University of Toronto economist Matthew Turner also has studied the sprawl-obesity connection, comparing the weights of people before and after moving to “sprawl”-style neighborhoods, but finds nearly zero correlation.
Speaking from my personal experience, I am convinced that there is a connection. I know for a fact that I walked a lot more when I worked in downtown Richmond and lived in the Fan than I do now living in the Henrico suburbs. Why? Because there were destinations that could be reached on foot. In the Fan, my wife and I walked to restaurants, walked to neighbors’ houses, walked to the wine shop, walked to the corner store to pick up a can of tomato paste needed for dinner. Needless to say, we drive everywhere now — even to neighborhood parties an eight-minute walk away!
I also know that I packed on about 10 pounds after four years living in the ‘burbs. It’s only when I found that I had high blood pressure that I embarked upon a nutrition and exercise regimen that enabled me to lose that ten pounds and more. The academic studies demonstrating the sprawl-obesity connection may not yet meet the standards of scientific proof, but I don’t need proof. I’ve lived the before and after. I know.
(Hat tip to Jon Baliles for referring me to John Sarvay’s post at Buttermilk and Molasses, “Getting the Fat out of Urban Design.”)