BIKE: NYTimes.com Article: The Path to a Healthier America

[pgoetz]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by pgoetz.


The obesity angle appears now to be one of the TBC's (Texas Bicycle Coalition) main strategies, too.  Perhaps this makes sense.  A recent study suggests that obesity is now the #2 killer of adults in the US, just behind smoking as a public health hazard.

Too bad politicians have absolutely no interest in listening.


pgoetz


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The Path to a Healthier America

March 24, 2004
 


 

The transportation bill that's now before the House of
Representatives is likely to be controversial for all sorts
of reasons, given President Bush's concern for symbolic
cost-cutting and Congress's love affair with road-building.
While that debate goes on, we hope that someone focuses on
this oddity: at a time when the nation is obsessively
worrying about obesity, the bill seems to do everything it
can to make sure that Americans continue sitting in their
cars for as much time as possible. 

Some 80 percent of the six-year $300 billion bill would go
to road-building projects, with most of the rest financing
mass transit. Less than 1 percent would be allotted for
pedestrian and bicycle paths. 

By giving Americans more reasons to pick up the car keys
instead of their sneakers, the bill gives new meaning to
the word pork. 

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a national nonprofit
group focused on the environment and public health issues,
has been urging Congress to do its part and require state
and local transportation planners to consider how they can
address the problem of obesity. Most outings in and around
cities are less than three miles, but the way cities and
suburbs are structured practically begs residents to take
those short trips behind the wheel. 

Expending calories instead of gasoline flattens stomachs
and strengthens legs. Having fewer cars on the road would
also lead to cleaner air. The nation would be thinner and
healthier and would breathe easier. Perhaps lawmakers
should take a walk and think it all over. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/opinion/24WED3.html?ex=1081137010&ei=1&en=81f7eb6c0319a2b4


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