1960-2009 Drop in cycling & walking rates in U.S.

[shootingstar]

Bicycling and walking levels fell 66% between 1960 and 2009, while obesity levels increased by 156%.

http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/images/uploads/Media_Fact_Sheet_-_Benchmarking_2012.pdf

Obviously huge effort is required in different areas of society/on different fronts to change the trend.

[azfiddle]

This was nice to find out: Tucson has the most on-street bike lanes at 620 miles and ranks in the top three of bike lanes per square mile.

[Tri Girl]

Interesting information (although not surprising that walking/biking has decreased and obesity has skyrocketed).

I was happy to see my city #50 in the top biking/walking cities, but disappointed to see us near the bottom (high end) for fatalities. :(

We have students who live a few houses away that are driven to school, and even more who live within a few blocks of school that are driven. Most of our students live miles away. It's a shame. When neighborhood schools went away, that took away the biking/walking ability for many, many students- meaning they have to ride the bus or get driven because it's simply not safe to bike/walk. If it could be made safer, I KNOW more students would bike/walk. It's a shame we've taken that option away from them.

[shootingstar]

We have students who live a few houses away that are driven to school, and even more who live within a few blocks of school that are driven. Most of our students live miles away. It's a shame. When neighborhood schools went away, that took away the biking/walking ability for many, many students- meaning they have to ride the bus or get driven because it's simply not safe to bike/walk. If it could be made safer, I KNOW more students would bike/walk. It's a shame we've taken that option away from them.

I wonder if some of it has less to do with car traffic, particularily if the neighbourhood is not that car intensive vs. fear of predators snatching/luring an innocent kid that some parents may have.

I was dismayed to hear my 10 yr. old niece (who has ice hockey and gymnastics outside of school) say in the car, "I don't like walking". That is just not good. And I know her parents wouldn't have wanted their daughter to feel that way.

[Owlie]

I wonder what would happen if we overlaid the CDC obesity map with one constructed from this chart...(but we'd need more information than this provides).

I'm a little disappointed that Ohio is so far down, but also not all that surprised, since there are a great many communities that don't seem to have heard of sidewalks. I have to hop in the car to go to school (~1.1 miles away) even on the days I don't have classes until 8 because it's not safe to walk. On the good side, Cleveland is number 19 on the list. Since it's an older city (at least, the area I lived in) was extremely walkable. Cincinnati and Dayton aren't even on the list.

It's a self-perpetuating problem, though, in newer areas. Everyone becomes car-dependent, for one reason or another, and since everyone is car-dependent, it becomes okay for city/community planners to okay development of shopping/dining areas miles away from residential ones, which reinforces dependence on cars.

[Tri Girl]

I wonder if some of it has less to do with car traffic, particularily if the neighbourhood is not that car intensive vs. fear of predators snatching/luring an innocent kid that some parents may have.
Probably a little bit of both. Times have changed in so many ways, haven't they? I know some friends who won't even let their kids play in the front yard- even under their supervision. There were predators when 35 years ago we were kids (a girl in my neighborhood was kidnapped, actually), but I don't think the media got a hold of it and we didn't have 24 hour news to make us feel frightened and paranoid of so many things happening to us IMHO. We didn't have news from around the nation at all times telling us all the bad things that happen.



I was dismayed to hear my 10 yr. old niece (who has ice hockey and gymnastics outside of school) say in the car, "I don't like walking".
I overheard a few kids during our Bike and Walk to School event last year say "walking and riding bikes isn't cool." And there you go. These were 3rd graders. Since when is walking or biking "nerdy"? Ugh... took all I had to not say something, especially since I ride my bike to work every day (maybe if I wasn't a teacher there I would have).



I wonder what would happen if we overlaid the CDC obesity map with one constructed from this chart...(but we'd need more information than this provides).

That's very interesting! I would like to see this done.



It's a self-perpetuating problem, though, in newer areas. Everyone becomes car-dependent, for one reason or another, and since everyone is car-dependent, it becomes okay for city/community planners to okay development of shopping/dining areas miles away from residential ones, which reinforces dependence on cars.
I agree- it's a vicious cycle. When we got away from downtown areas and started the suburban sprawl, it got easier to build things further away from centers of commerce/business.