Public Health
Basics
India’s Health Minister Wants Protected Bike Lanes Nationwide
There's encouraging news out of India, where cities expect to add hundreds of millions of residents in the next few decades but are already choking on traffic congestion and auto exhaust.
August 28, 2014
Study: People Living Near Biking and Walking Paths Get More Exercise
People who live near safe, high-quality biking and walking infrastructure tend to get more exercise than people who don't, according to a study published last week in the American Journal of Public Health.
July 21, 2014
What Sets Apart the Places Where People Walk More?
A lot of research has shown a link between living in a walkable community, active transportation habits, and better health outcomes.
February 6, 2014
What Should Doctors Do to Prevent Traffic Deaths?
When cars first became a common presence in American cities, doctors were shocked by the carnage. In 1925, editors of the New England Journal of Medicine called the bloodshed caused by motorists "appalling" and lamented children's loss of life as "a massacre of the innocent." The sense of urgency was still detectable a few decades later. In a 1957 report, Harvard researchers called the public health threat posed by automobiles a “mass disease of epidemic proportions.”
January 13, 2014
Heart Disease, Traffic Jams and ADHD Share One Simple Solution: Drive Less
This is an excerpt from "Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy," by Elly Blue (Microcosm Publishing, December 1, 2013, bikenomics.com). See our interview with Elly from spring 2013.
October 18, 2013
The Defense Department’s Embrace of Livability Will Save Money — and Lives
On Tuesday, we wrote about the Defense Department’s new rules for the design of their bases and installations. These rules make smart growth the law of the land on hundreds of vast military installations in the U.S. and abroad. There’s more to the story: In this post we examine how a smart growth development model will bring wide-ranging benefits to the defense complex.
June 20, 2013
Celebrate Bike to Work Week, No Matter What You Weigh
Happy Bike to Work Week, everybody! It's a great time to give a gentle nudge to someone who you think would benefit from biking. In that vein, personal trainer and fitness coach Stephanie Averkamp of San Diego posted this infographic to her personal health website. She says she especially hopes to convince overweight and obese people to bike more.
May 13, 2013
What Should the Surgeon General Say to Get More People Walking?
What if cars came with a Surgeon General’s warning like the ones that come on cigarette packs: "Sitting in this seat could lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and divorce."
April 2, 2013
Designing Communities for Longevity: The Blue Zones Project
Is your neighborhood designed to make people healthy or sick? With the right characteristics, the place where you live could add years to your life.
February 8, 2013