As if the car industry needed more bad news. A study by David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University found a strong link between “active transportation” and obesity rates in 17 industrialized nations.
From Wired:
“Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates,” Bassett and Pucher conclude in the study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. “Walking and bicycling are far more common in European countries than in the United States, Australia and Canada. Active transportation is inversely related to obesity in these countries.”
* Latvia: 67 percent of the population uses active transportation and 14 percent are obese.
* Sweden: 62 percent use active transportation, and 9 percent are obese.
* Netherlands: 52 percent use active transportation, and 11 percent are obese.
* Canada: 19 percent use active transportation, and 23 percent are obese.
* Australia: 14 percent use active transportation, and 21 percent are obese.
* US: 12 percent use active transportation, 25 – 33 percent are obese.Overall, the study found, Europeans walk three times as far and cycle five times as far as Americans. Europeans walk an average of 237 miles each year and bike another 116, while their American counterparts walk 87 miles and bike 24. The extra exercise means Europeans burn 5 to 9 pounds more than Americans do.
Looking at it another way, the Swiss take an average of 9,700 steps each day, compared to 7,200 for the Japanese and 5,900 here in America.
It would be easy to chalk this up to American laziness and our love affair with cars, but it isn’t that easy. European cities tend to be compact and densely populated with excellent transit systems. American cities, on the other hand, tend to sprawl on and on and on — ever been to Atlanta? Dallas? Phoenix? — and our mass transit infrastructure generally is not as advanced, so it can be harder to get out of the car and onto a bike.
