Environments for fit families, kids, commuters and seniors.
What would you choose: Barren paths flanked by chain-link fences leading to a drab strip mall or tree-lined sidewalks in a vibrant neighborhood alongside a lakeside park? A shoulderless road where cars whiz by at 70 mph, coming within inches of your bike, or a designated lane where fellow cyclists ride safely, protected from traffic? Community planners and public health experts are joining forces to create attractive environments for active residents. Looking for a healthier place to live? Keep an eye out for the following features.
1. Made in the shade
Tree canopy — or tree cover — makes communities more attractive, but aesthetics is only one advantage. Nature’s beauty lures walkers, runners and bikers outdoors to exercise. And trees help protect against soaring heat indexes. “In summertime, in areas that tend to get heat waves, you’re safer,” says Dr. Aaron Wernham, former director of the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Frailer seniors at risk from hot weather benefit from living in a neighborhood with a good tree canopy, he says, because heat waves tend to be less intense.
2. Urban fitness
Walkability is a big-city plus — unlike sprawling suburbs where you need a car to get to work, shop and drive to the gym. City sidewalks and hop-on transit including streetcars and subways, mixed with urban parks and green spaces, make for an upbeat, active lifestyle. Unique fitness opportunities can pop up where — and when — you least expect them: like early-morning dance parties in the District of Columbia. You can compare city walkability rankings on Walk Score, a private company that assigns numerical ratings to locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia.
3. Fresh food vs. food deserts
Grocery stores and farmers markets are important parts of healthy environments. Without them, fast-food restaurants and convenience stores can be all too tempting. For people who live in food deserts — areas without access to fresh, healthy and affordable food — there’s little choice. “As a doctor, I can tell patients, ‘Look, you’ve got to get more fresh fruits and vegetables,'” Wernham says. “But if you’re a single mom and it takes you 1.5 hours on the bus to get to the grocery store, you’re going to be less likely to do that.” If you’re moving to a new area, be sure to check out local food sources.
4. Safe paths to school
Most kids travel to school as sedentary car or bus passengers, part of a decades-long trend. In response, communities across the country are creating Safe Routes to School programs to encourage kids to walk or bike instead. Locales are adding sidewalks, creating trails, putting up road signs, boosting law enforcement presence and organizing school-wide walking contests. And programs are showing signs of success, with school bike racks filling up and fewer parent chauffeurs dropping off kids.
5. Stairs in plain view
There’s a reason gym rats sweat on Stairmasters — climbing is great exercise. Builders are catching on, too. “There’s an increased awareness among architects that maybe we need to bring stairs back — take them out of the closet,” says James Sallis, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California–San Diego. Instead of hiding at the back of the building, stairs are coming back into view. “Several studies show that when you walk into a building the first thing you see are stairs, and they’re nice and they’re open, that people will take them, rather than going and searching for the elevators.”
6. Parks to play in
Parks come in all sizes: from large swathes of land with multiuse playing fields and recreation centers, to compact “pocket parks” spread throughout smart communities or tucked into urban areas. “For children, not surprisingly, playgrounds are very active places,” Sallis says. “There should be playgrounds at every park — and playgrounds can fit into pocket parks.” Basketball and tennis courts lure teens and young adults, and fields accommodate sports from soccer to baseball. “For adults, linear aspects of parks seem to be most important,” he says. “Sidewalks, walking paths, trails — all generate a lot of physical activity.”
7. A place to bike
Biking is a fun, green, inexpensive travel choice that lets you burn calories and build leg muscles. Too often, though, cyclists have been treated as road intruders. Now, dedicated bike paths and bike shares are part of a growing pro-biking movement. “Portland, Oregon, is one of the poster children for biking and walking because they’ve been working at it for 30 years,” Sallis says, and he praises the efforts of Minneapolis, despite the cold climate. Like New York, the city is creating “Copenhagen bike paths,” separated from traffic by curbs, posts or planters. A study found the more protected a bike facility was, the more people would go out of their way to use it: “Bike lanes — which only protect you with paint — were used less.”
8. Air-quality question
If you live in a traffic-clogged city with cars and taxis spewing exhaust fumes, near a major highway or heavy industrial area, could exercising outdoors do you more harm than good? The trade-off between physical activity and air quality is being studied, says Casey Durand, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at the Houston School of Public Health.
Wernham says most experts agree the health risks of being sedentary — such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease — outweigh the risks of working out amid some air pollution. But be aware of air quality — avoid exercising outdoors on red-level days.
9. Anti-sprawl communities
The Preserve is a still-growing, smart-growth community in Chino, California, east of Los Angeles. “It’s a more compact development,” says Durand, who has researched how kids get to school. “The lots are smaller; the houses are closer together. The school is right in the middle of the development.” Nick Liguori, director of community development for Chino, moved into the Preserves. As the father of three sons, he appreciates amenities such as off-street biking trails and the easy-to-walk-to K-8 school. “As a planning profession, we wanted a connection between land use-plans and public health,” Liguori says. Learn more about healthy community design at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
10. Healthier housing
A mixture of housing options — single-family homes, townhomes, condos and apartments — is part of smart environments. Affordable housing is a must. Wernham recalls a young patient, about 5 years old, admitted to the hospital several times for asthma flare-ups. Although he went home on maximum medications and inhalers, his condition wasn’t controlled. His mother explained that they lived in a tiny old apartment with moldy walls and pests — known asthma factors. Health systems are beginning to look at these home-based problems, he says, including a New York experiment that provided housing for homeless people with chronic conditions like heart failure and emphysema.
11. Activity for all
Sallis, whose studies include people with a wide range of disabilities, says features important for staying active — like mixed-use zoning — help everybody. “If you can’t drive, because you can’t see, the only way you can get around by yourself is to walk. If where you live is within walking distance of a store, you can go.” Cane and wheelchair users need smooth sidewalks, with curb ramps leading to crosswalks. Slower-walking seniors, adults and kids all need safer intersections, he says: “Putting in more stop signs, slowing down traffic, giving people more time to cross at pedestrian signals — these are all doable fixes.”
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11 Ways Healthy Community Design is Working originally appeared on usnews.com
