WC Archive

We know that there's a correlation between obesity and suburban sprawl. But what's the nature of the connection? The traditional conclusion is that the fewer opportunities to walk and ride bicycles in suburban and exurban communities exact a toll on physical health -- in short, that living in the 'burbs can make you fat.

But two Oregon State researchers have come to a different conclusion. In their research, just published in Journal of Regional Science, they find that living in sprawl doesn't make one fat, but that a reluctance to walk or ride bikes makes one more likely to want to live in the suburbs!

The researchers found that fit people choose to live in neighborhoods that allow them to walk to work or shop and fat people pick places where they need a car.

The study was adjusted to eliminate differences due to income and other factors.

The upshot is that changes to urban design may not have the health effects many of us might wish for. Real change will require changing people's minds about exercise. Sadly, this may be even harder than transforming urban landscapes.