Physical Activity in the US Essay -- Social Issues, Transportation

The level of the population’s level of physical activity is becoming a major public health concern in the United States (Wahlgren, 2011). As a result of urban sprawl, Americans rely heavily on personal vehicles to travel to work or other destinations. This is leading to a sedentary life style for the public as they take to their cars to travel to their destination. The public’s perception of the environments in which they live in are likely influencing their behaviors resulting in their dependance on personal vehicles. (Wahlgren, 2011). The physical environment and peoples’ levels of physical activity are directly connected. Low density zoning and auto-dependent development is resulting in the promotion of sedentary life styles. Most activities, like commuting to work or shopping, requires the use of a personal vehicle because of the area’s isolation in residential zones and commercial zones (Ewing, 2010). Alternative modes like walking or bicycling are ra ther impractical, as the areas often have little to no sidewalks or other pedestrian friendly amenities (Marshall, 2009). The Low density design is developed because residential homes have fewer units per acre and commercial buildings tend to only be a couple of stories and spaced further apart. The sizes of lots tend to be bigger to accommodate large parking lots that are often oversized and unsafe for pedestrians. An effort to combat the continual development of urban sprawl, smart growth development looks to solve this dilemma. The idea of smart growth concentrates its development around compact walkable centers within urban areas. The purpose of this is to avoid the growing sprawl through the implementation of walkable, bicycle-friendly and alternative transportation like b... ...uate personal motivation, however it is an issue that involves social and physical obstacles that must be overcome as well (Steinman, 2010). Environments that enhance walkability are typically associated with greater pedestrian traffic and lower body mass index (BMI). Neighborhood safety and traffic volumes and road speeds have been identified in the ACRES and other studies as determinants to a walk able neighborhood (Steinman, 2010, Wahlgren, 2011). Urban planners can address these issue in several different ways. Placing sidewalks and lighting to clearly guide pedestrians and creating visibility with canopy trees can create safe inviting spaces. Addressing volume and speed on roadways can be addressed by introducing sidewalk bulbs, roundabout and buffers between sidewalks and streets through the use of landscaping (Wahlgren, 2011, Dumbaugh, 2011, Frumkin, 2002).