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Public health experts, architects, and others in the livable
communities field are examining the ways in which the built
environment can affect health. Encouraging physical activity,
reducing air pollution, and preserving the natural environment are
important for public health.
Architects can design environments that incorporate physical
activity into people's daily routines, give them a community with
attractive destinations within walking or biking distance, and keep
safety in mind with lighting, "eyes on the street" design, traffic
calming, and other techniques to improve pedestrian and bicyclist
safety. An upfront investment in good design can save money -and
lives - in the long run.
* Chronic illnesses associated with lack of physical activity
include obesity, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, depression, heart
disease, several types of cancer, and high blood pressure. Obesity
is the nation's fastest growing health threat.
* Mixed-use communities generate about four times as many walking
trips as auto-dependent suburbs. Streets designed for pedestrians
rather than for cars, high-density patterns of development, and
bike paths and walkways encourage people to walk or bike to run
errands, go to school, or commute to work.
* Large surface parking lots not only encourage people to drive and
intimidate pedestrians but they also create impermeable surfaces
that send stormwater runoff directly into waterways, causing
flooding and increased concentrations of pollutants.
* Psychologists have found that just looking at natural
environments, such as a park visible from an office window,
restores people's mental, social, and creative functioning. Being
in nature, as well as engaging in physical activity, helps reduce
depression and boosts health.
* Architects can design communities that reduce the "heat island"
effect by using green roofs, minimizing paved surfaces, and
preserving trees. Green building technology conserves
resources.
For more information on increasing physical activity through
community design, go to Active
Living by Design.
Quick Facts
* Between 60 and 70 percent of Americans do not get the recommended
daily 30 minutes of exercise. Nearly one-third of Americans are
obese, and almost another third are overweight. Regular physical
activity can decrease the risk of almost every kind of
cancer.
* An estimated 300,000 premature deaths in the U.S. in 1990 were
due to chronic diseases caused or escalated by physical inactivity.
Medical costs of inactivity are estimated to be $76 billion
annually.
* Obesity in American adults has doubled since 1980, from 15
percent in 1980 to 31 percent in 2000. It is second only to smoking
as a preventable cause of cancer. In 1991, 15 percent or more of
the population was considered obese in only four states. A decade
later, this was true of every state except Colorado.
* Only about half of children aged 12-21 engage in regular,
vigorous physical activity, and children spend an average of at
least one hour each day in cars. Only about one-third of children
who live within a mile of their school walk or bike there, compared
to 70 percent of their parents who walked or biked to school.
Meanwhile, childhood obesity rates have more than doubled since the
early 1970s.
* Unless current eating and exercise habits change, one-third of
all children born in the U.S. in 2000 will become diabetic.
Minority groups have a higher risk of developing the disease.
* Americans make fewer than 6 percent of their trips on foot, but
pedestrians account for 12 percent of traffic fatalities, primarily
because of street design that makes walking dangerous. Data suggest
that one-third of car-accident fatalities are caused by poorly
planned roads, not by driver error or mechanical failure. Children,
seniors, and ethnic minorities are most at risk.
* Researchers estimate that smog from traffic congestion can cause
more than 6 million asthma attacks, 159,000 emergency-room visits
for asthma attacks, and 53,000 asthma-related hospitalizations in a
single year. During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, city
officials reduced vehicle traffic by as much as 22.5 percent. Ozone
concentrations dropped from peak levels by 27.9 percent, and
asthma-related medical emergencies decreased by 41.6 percent.
* Depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and
worldwide. Psychological studies have shown that exposing people to
natural environments, even photographs of nature, improves their
mood, helps them heal more quickly, increases their work and life
satisfaction, reduces anger, and improves productivity.
* The Texas Transportation Institute's annual Mobility Report
estimates that the average person's annual delay due to congestion
was 26 hours in 2001, compared to seven hours in 1982. A person
with a 25-minute commute to work could spend 60 hours per year
sitting in traffic.
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