Suburban sprawl connected to waistline sprawl

By SIMON COLLINS

Moving to the suburbs may be bad for your health, says Auckland medical officer of health Dr Virginia Hope.

Planners should take account of the health effects of spreading people further apart so that they have to drive to get anywhere, she told the inaugural conference of the New Zealand branch of the Australasian Society for the Study of Obesity.

Dr Hope quoted an American study which found that people in sprawling communities such as Ohio's Geauga County were on average about 6kg heavier than those in inner-city New York, where people walk at least to and from the subway.

Dr Hope, who was elected to the Auckland District Health Board last month and also sits on the Regional Land Transport Committee, said health impact assessments should be done for all major transport initiatives.

Planners needed to make sure people could walk from their homes to a grocer's shop, and that children could walk to somewhere to play.

Public transport services needed to be close and frequent, and the streets needed to be well-lit so people could feel safe walking to the bus stop or shops.

"Mixed-use residential environments might encourage them to walk to the services, rather than have to drive miles to get somewhere," Dr Hope said. "We are not going to be able to deal with air pollution without acting on transport systems."

The special projects manager for the Health Sponsorship Council, Tane Cassidy, told the conference about a meeting in Washington last May which looked at improving public health through design measures such as cycle paths and trails, children's "walking buses" and "walking meetings" where executives do business during walks rather than over long lunches.