Living Well: Walkability is a big step toward shaping up a community

When Larry Frank and his partner moved from Atlanta to Vancouver, B.C., they bought a home with the same square footage. But that was about the only similarity.

"The home in Atlanta was in-town but all on one floor," said Frank, a public health and urban design researcher at the University of British Columbia. "It was an urban neighborhood, but we both needed our own car to get anywhere or run errands.

"Our new place is a townhouse near the beach. There are three floors, each small. We go up and down the stairs a lot."

The vertical movement is all to Frank's plan. His academic specialty is linking community design to increased physical activity, which in turn he envisions can help stunt the alarming rate of obesity in the United States.

Frank's townhouse purchase in Vancouver was a "very conscious decision" to literally walk his talk.

"We live in a dense area with so much retail," said Frank. "We take fewer car trips. We sold one car. We use public transportation to get to work and walk to a nearby grocery store and the butcher and fish shop."

But Frank doesn't quite have Atlanta out of his rearview mirror. He is the lead author of an important new study that shows Atlanta residents who live in the most walkable neighborhoods are 2 1/2 times more likely to be physically active than Atlantans who live in the least walkable areas. If a neighborhood even jumped one level in the study's walkability index, it translated to a 30 percent increase in people who were classified as active. The study was published in the Feb. 9 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Walkability was determined by community and regional planning models used by Frank and his fellow researchers, including Thomas L. Schmid from the federal U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and James F. Sallis at San Diego State University. Land-use mix (residential, commercial, industrial, parks), residential density and intersection density were all markers. Of course, sidewalks were evaluated for both sheer presence (Frank interviewed several people for a follow-up report who explained a neighborhood without sidewalks means they must get in their cars simply to take an off-the-street walk) and sidewalk connectivity.

Being physically active was defined as matching or surpassing the 30 minutes of daily moderate physical activity recommended in the latest federal dietary guidelines, which actually call for at least 30 and up to 90 minutes.

Reasonable people still are shaking their heads about the suggestion that we get 90 minutes of physical activity each day. Frank's response is that community design and regional planning can add to your total without special trips to the gym.

"In contrast to physical activity promotion programs for individuals that typically have short-term effects, building walkable neighborhoods could be expected to have relatively permanent effects," wrote Frank and his colleagues in the study.

Frank has open ears among King County officials. Executive Ron Sims commissioned the Vancouver-based researcher to deliver a report -- due within the month -- on physical activity levels and walkability ratings of King County neighborhoods and towns. Sims and his top advisers recognize the upside for public health while making decisions about land use, urban planning and public transportation.

It makes King County a rare governing agency to have such foresight, but you can be sure other civic leaders across the country eventually will follow its lead. Probably sooner than later.

While land-use reform is regarded as a slow process, taking decades, the concept of "built environment" that encourages people to walk has caught the attention of the CDC in the past five years. For instance, a major CDC policy initiative is targeting whether the lack of sidewalks in the suburbs or lack of safety in urban neighborhoods contribute to the alarming number of American kids who are overweight or obese (more than 20 percent over a healthy weight).

"It's exciting to sit at the table with environmental community members who promote walking and bicycling and public health officials who are focused on reducing obesity," said Karen Wolf, Sims' senior executive policy adviser on land use. "We urban planners are looking for ways to make the city more compact. What's happening is each group (environmentalists, public health officials, urban planners) realizes that building a neighborhood that is more walkable can accomplish all three goals."

Wolf said communities also are recognizing the wisdom of creating more pedestrian connectivity and public transportation. She identified Bellevue as "working hard to redevelop living, walking and working" in its downtown area. Redmond officials, too, have decided that the town needs "more destinations for walkers."

The report commissioned by Sims will provide more incentive for local communities wanting to retain or attract residents and businesses.

"Just check the real estate listings," said Wolf. "The homes with the highest prices are the ones near walking trails and parks and with good bus connections."

Wolf took efforts to make the point that increasing walkability doesn't mean towns or neighborhoods will become, say, too commercialized or noisy. Quite the contrary. The idea is to improve the physical activity quotient while promoting less car use. You win, Big Oil loses.

"We haven't really even introduced how walkability decreases our reliance on oil," said Frank. "That will change a lot of minds."

What makes the Atlanta study important is it measured actual activity of 357 adults rather than rely on self-reporting methods of past research. Study participants wore accelerometers that monitored a level of physical intensity minute by minute. So any minute of heightened activity was identified and cataloged whether someone was walking the dog, taking two stairs at a time, carrying groceries or running for the bus.

"We took it from guesswork to reality," said Frank. "This study affirms that all activity adds up. Every additional minute can add to your daily total."

For his part, Frank sees a day when walkability is considered routinely by anyone buying a home.

"We hope to convince people when looking for their next home to factor in what the purchase means for their health," said Frank. "You might get the bonus room over the garage or more space in lower-density sprawl areas, but it is likely to mean you have to drive everywhere. The lower cost-per-square foot will cost you in other ways."

Bob Condor writes every Monday about health and quality of life. He is editor of the Seattle-based Evergreen Monthly, which covers health, environment, food, social good, spirituality and personal growth (visit www.evergreenmonthly.com). Send e-mails to bobcondor@aol.com with any questions or ideas for the Living Well column.

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