Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Providing bicycle infrastructure for combating childhood obesity
Local governments should do a better job of providing good bicycle and pedestrian facilities so that children can get more exercise, according to Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity, a new study that was released today. The number one goal for increasing physical activity is to "Encourage walking and bicycling for transportation and recreation through improvements in the built environment" and the first action step is to "Adopt a pedestrian and bicycle master plan to develop a long-term vision for walking and bicycling in the community and to guide implementation." pp. 57 & 58.See the Yahoo! news article Tax junk food, drinks to fight child obesity, and the USA Today article Report maps out solutions to child obesity.
While some progress is being made in Fairfax County, the schools have not done enough to ensure that kids can safely walk and bike to school. Perhaps we should have an "adopt a school" program so that bike advocates can work with a single school to encourage them to provide bike racks to kids and to provide better bicycle education. More on this topic in a later post.
Labels: obesity
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