Getting America Back on Its Feet: Launching a walking movment to strenghten our health and ......

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from OnTheCommons.org:


Getting America Back on Its Feet
Launching a walking movment to strenghten our health and communities

| by Jay Walljasper


Americans’ #1 favorite physical activity is walking, reports the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walking also plays a fundamental role in our transportation system, with 11 percent of all trips made on foot, according to the US Department of Transportation. Neighborhoods that rank high for walkability (where walking is safe and convenient) enjoy a greater sense of community and higher property values according to recent studies.

Another benefit of walking is better health. Studies document that moderate physical activity like a 30-minute daily stroll can cut rates of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer by at least 40 percent, and save more than $100 billion a year in health care costs according to the American Public Health Association.

So why don’t Americans walk more? We take about half as many steps each day as Australians.

It’s not that we’re lazy. In the decades after World War II an historic transformation of America’s population occurred as millions of Americans moved from walkable small towns and cities to suburbs, which favored cars over feet. At the same time we redesigned our communities based on the notion that walking was an outmoded activity. As a result, some of the most prominent commons in our lives vanished: sidewalks, parks, walking paths, promenades. By the year 2000 the average American adult was driving about 14,000 miles per year and spending more than 212 hours annually commuting in a car—the equivalent of five work weeks. Walking for both transportation and recreation went into a dramatic decline. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/magazine/getting-america-back-its-feet#sthash.kMgmlXKz.dpuf