The Sprawl Effect

Fleeing the crowded, polluted city was supposed to be good for your health. But suburbs have some definite ills as well.

1 minute read

September 30, 2003, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"A strip mall here, a housing development there, an industrial park yonder, all connected by roads, leave little room for pedestrians. In the September issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, Reid Ewing, a researcher at the University of Maryland, surveyed 448 counties in the United States and found that rates of hypertension and obesity were proportional to the sprawl index -- a measurement that takes into account population density, number of highways and distances between homes and businesses. In Burnside, for instance, wide suburban houses are built on cul-de-sacs, and the absence of local shops rules out what experts call purposeful walking. Movement has been engineered out of our lives..."

Thanks to Congress for the New Urbanism

FULL STORY: The Burbs Weigh In

Monday, October 6, 2003 in Newsweek

Social / Demographics United States

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