18/09/12 17:26Fighting obesity with urban planning | SmartPlanet

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Fighting obesity with urbanplanningBy Beth Carter | October 11, 2011, 11:03 PM PDT

American obesity, while maybe not breaking news, continues to be a growing epidemic.Governments of all levels are trying to do their part to encourage a healthy, realistic lifestyle fortheir citizens. The First Lady, Michelle Obama, founded an initiative to get kids moving, New YorkCity prohibited obesity-linked trans-fats, and one California lawmaker proposed to tax junk food.

In Los Angeles County, California, almost one quarter of the population is obese. The publichealth department has taken various actions emulating those previously described, but the citywanted to take it further. The government is getting creative, looking beyond the accepted methodsto reduce and prevent obesity.

This week, the L.A. County Department of Public Health released the “Model Design Manual forLiving Streets,” essentially a contribution to the fight against obesity from an urban planningperspective. The aim is to make the streets more active and efficient, and as a result, healthier.

18/09/12 17:26Fighting obesity with urban planning | SmartPlanet

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This effort was funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in collaborationwith the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and it focuses not just on pedestrians. According tothe site’s informative description, the manual’s aim is to achieve “balance.”

It is important, as most cities have to work with a street system already in place, that street design“accommodates cars while ensuring that pedestrians, cyclists and transit users can travel safelyand comfortably.”

Beauty and environmental sustainability are also important features of a balanced streetscape.

The idea that the design of a street can affect the fitness and physical health of city-dwellers comesfrom the notion that different city and street landscapes facilitate different types of human use.

“For example,” reported Nate Berg, for Atlantic Cities, “a street designed with no sidewalks, nocrosswalks, and six lanes of cars rushing by at 60 mph will discourage pedestrians

The manual brought together the best current practices that both urban planners and city officialscan use as a guide to do their part in promoting physical activity as a means to fight obesity.Contributors came from many fields, including transportation engineering, landscape architectureand public health.

Though originally crafted for cities within the borders of L.A. County, the scope of the manual waswidened for more diverse application. The manual offers advice on how to make a restored areainto profitable venture, and even suggests ways to improve streets in an affordable way,acknowledging how expensive construction can be.

It is clear that sharing ideas with anyone that was interested, whether with designers orgovernment officials, is an important part of the project. To make this easier, downloading is free.

The application of the principles stated in the manual, of course, remains to be seen. For now, theidea of making streets activity-friendly is a step in the right direction.

[Via Atlantic Cities]Photo: William Carter

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