The Walking Cure

In Columbia, Mo., a lot of people are trying--really trying--to get their neighbors biking and walking. In case you haven't heard, exercise has many advantages. For anyone trying to keep off weight, the simple activity of putting one foot in front of another is surprisingly useful. So in mid-May, Mayor Darwin Hindman, who at 71 still bikes to work, kicked off Bike, Walk and Wheel Week to coax residents to commute and shop without cars. Mayor Hindman and local Congressman Kenny Hulshof led dozens of cyclists on a 4-mile ride. A week later, volunteers were serving breakfast all over town for anyone walking, cycling or rolling in a wheelchair.

There's just one problem. If you want to travel by foot or even by bike in Columbia, it's not that easy to get where you need to go. Most of the homes aren't located anywhere near stores. And just walking around the neighborhood can be a challenge, since more than half the streets lack sidewalks. Not long ago the local planning and zoning commission proposed an ordinance that would require broad pedestrian and cycling paths along new and rebuilt streets. But the town council tabled the measure until more could be learned about potential costs, promising to take a second look at it in June.

"Everyone is created to walk," says Mayor Hindman. "But we have designed our streets to create barriers to an obvious, efficient activity." Columbia is not alone. Throughout most of the U.S., suburban sprawl has created a nation that has been supersized beyond walking distance. Homes tend to be far removed from shopping; compact, walkable downtowns are rare; traffic is fast and dangerous to pedestrians; and even sidewalks aren't to be taken for granted. Researchers will tell you that most Americans will not walk anyplace that's more than a quarter-mile away. In a recent poll, 44% of people questioned said it was difficult to walk to any destination from their home--any destination at all.

For a lot of reasons, the arguments against the spread-out design of U.S. cities and suburbs have been getting louder in recent years. Anybody stuck two hours in commuter traffic can tell you some of those reasons. But researchers have begun to recognize a previously unsuspected drawback to the way the U.S. is constructed. What they have found is a connection between sprawling suburbs and spreading waistlines. Very simply, people who live in communities where it's hard to get anywhere on foot are heavier than those who live in less car-dependent settings, whether densely settled cities like Boston and Chicago or just pedestrian-friendly towns. While diet remains an important factor in the obesity epidemic, it's becoming increasingly clear that Americans are shaped partly by how America is shaped.

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