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Does urban sprawl really make us fat?
% obese persons in Australia by age group: 1995 vs 2004–2005 (source: Preventative Health Taskforce) A common view among politicians, the media, planners and health professionals is that urban sprawl...
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Does living on the fringe make people sick?
Proportion of population classified as overweight (Source: OECD) Crikey readers who live in the outer suburbs should sit up and take notice – according to this Fairfax editorial, urban sprawl is making...
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Are Michelle Obama’s ‘Food Deserts’ a myth?
What's the most incongruous thing about the world's largest ($1 billion) swimming pool? (click for more) I’ve always felt there’s something dubious about the “food deserts” hypothesis that’s so...
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Will taxing fast food outlets improve health?
Mobile phone connections versus water services for rural and urban inhabitants in the developing world. Source: Zetland & Gasson. The City of Darebin in Melbourne is looking at the possibility of...
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Can urban designers limit diabetes?
Level of physical activity of 275 UK school children, comparing those who walked to school against those who were driven (see Metcalf et al for explanation of units) I’ve argued before (e.g. here and...
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Does sprawl make teenagers lazy?
Animation of GPS-equipped pizza deliverers in Manhattan - from PBS's America Revealed (click for more) We’re used to seeing lots of claims that suburban sprawl is a key cause of the obesity epidemic...
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An Aroma of links for urbanists
World cities compared by area of urbanisation and density Have a sniff of these assorted links from around the traps: Compare world cities side-by-side by their size and density. There’re 16 cities to...
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Is promoting health and fitness a winning strategy for cycling?
Everyday cycling in Copenhagen: Danes cycling as a means to get places, not as an end in itself (source: The Times) From time to time I write an article in which it’s necessary to refer to the...
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Does using public transport make the community healthier?
Distance walked to rail stations on an average weekday for all trip purposes, Sydney GCCSA (source data: NSW BTS) Here’s a finding that goes against the common wisdom that public transport users are...
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Do super-sized supermarkets cause obesity?
National obesity prevalence (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and average supermarket store size (aisle length in metres) in eight countries Here’s an interesting study that finds an extraordinarily strong correlation...
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Have the Premiers finally ‘gotten’ New Urbanism?
Visiting urbanist and former Chief Planner of Vancouver, Brent Toderian, talking to ABC News Breakfast last week When Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian was preparing for his visit to Australia last week...
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The roots of the new urban crisis – Richard Florida Targeted solutions needed for the problem of unaffordable housing – editorial, Sydney Morning Herald Girls with single parents more than twice as...
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That was The week That was… w/e 8 October
Peak hour (image: Bruce Dickson) In this week’s Tw3 The Urbanist comments on: Less train overcrowding, but it comes at a cost to you FJMT designs seven-storey ‘cloud’ over heritage buildings in...
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Do the suburbs make you fat?
Does living in the suburbs make you fat? It’s timely to revisit my earlier discussion of obesity because there’ve been a few studies released recently, like this one, that find residents of low density...
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