Carectomy.com: Removing Cars from People - British Health Organization Puts Walkers and Cyclists First

British Health Organization Puts Walkers and Cyclists First

Written by Joshua Liberles

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Citing obesity, cancer, and heart disease rates in the sedentary, Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (that’s “Nice” for short) has recommended that city planners and architects design exercise into towns and new buildings.

Mike Kelly, director of Nice’s center for public health excellence, estimates that inactivity costs Britain £8.2 billion per year in related health maladies. He compares the actions necessary to improve public health to changes undergone 150 years ago to prevent the spread of infectious disease. Although the root cause of sedentary peoples’ demise is more hidden than a debilitating illness, the result may be no less insidious or widespread.

Nice’s recommendations include giving priority to walking and cycling-friendly infrastructure in any new construction, making stairways the obvious choice for navigating new buildings, and limiting vehicle use through congestion pricing programs where vehicles must pay a fee to access downtown areas (similar to those currently proposed in London and New York). Many of Nice’s findings echo last year’s report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment which states that architecture can make you fat.

From the Guardian:

Philip Insall, director of Sustrans' active travel programme, is a member of the guidance committee. He said that while in Basel, Switzerland, only a quarter of trips in the city were by car "in a UK city of the same size it is probably two-thirds". Nice cited as a good example Leicester, where children are involved in designing streets safe to play in.

The government welcomed Nice's guidance. "One of the big challenges in tackling climate change is use of the private car and anything which encourages people to walk and cycle more will help," said Joan Ruddock, minister for climate change, biodiversity and waste at Defra.

Well thought-out planning and design play a crucial role in determining how a society will choose to navigate their communities. Europe has a bit of an edge in that regard since most of their construction pre-dates the auto era. Retrofits and community planning along the lines of what Nice proposes will make transportation by foot or by bike the obvious choice for daily commutes, and will make the automobile a heck of a lot less “necessary.”

Via the Guardian. Photo via flickr by jaimelondonboy.

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Lee said:

Excellent read, it is much better to design exercise into one's daily routine than to go to a club to exercise later on. I know, I've done both and I now try and incorporate the bicycle into basic local trips.

January 31, 2008 | url

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