BUILDING EXERCISE-FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOODS

According to a Dec. 14th Atlanta Journal-Constitution article,
"Inviting, tree-lined sidewalks. Speed bumps that make roads safe for
bikers. Zoning laws that inspire people to walk to work. This kind of
community might actually end the nation's obesity epidemic, and all the
attendant diseases that come with it. That's what experts in a variety
of fields are beginning to think, and they're joining forces to try and
create places to live that are also good for your health.

"'There's a new subfield, a marriage of urban planning and public
health,' says Reid Ewing, a research professor at the National Center
for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland. In the past five years,
experts have begun to realize that one's physical environment may be
directly linked to one's level of physical activity, he explains. That
connection may become critical as Americans grapple with a collective
weight problem that many now believe rivals smoking as a major public
health issue. As a matter of fact, more Americans are expected to die
from obesity-related causes than from smoking by the end of the decade,
according to the American Journal of Health Promotion..."

Source:
http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/envr/515959.html#
Title: "Neighborhoods That Nudge People to Exercise"
Author: HealthDayNews
From: Centerlines, bikewalk.org