Public Health

Sidewalks, bike lanes, traffic calming projects -- they save lives. Not just by protecting cyclists and pedestrians (not to mention motorists), but by encouraging physical activity that leads to a healthy life.

One of the most talked-about presentations at this week's National Bike Summit came from Jason Gaikowski, director of sales for the Bloomington, Minnesota-based wholesale distributor Quality Bicycle Products. Over the last several years, QBP has ramped up its employee health and wellness program, which includes incentives to bike to work. At a time when most employers are grappling with rising insurance premiums, a study by the company's health insurance provider, HealthPartners [PDF], suggests the program has helped reduce QBP's health care costs and increase employee productivity.

"A leading voice for better urban design for the sake of good health." "A public health/social justice hero." Dr. Richard Jackson, chair of environmental health at UCLA, is a leading voice for transportation reform whose work has linked America's sprawl to the nation's high rates of obesity.

Check out these two maps, the first showing obesity rates (by county) in the United States and the second showing the percentage of commuters who travel by car (via Planetizen).

At a long and at points contentious public hearing last night, a clear majority of speakers came out in support of protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues in East Harlem. In addition to local residents, the public health community came out in force to demolish the opposition's claim that installing bike lanes could worsen the neighborhood's asthma rates.

Transportation Alternatives and the New York Chapter of the American Association of Family Physicians today released a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, signed by 140 medical professionals from a broad spectrum of specialties, praising the city's bike and pedestrian infrastructure as essential to the health of New Yorkers. It's a solid counterweight to the hysteria surrounding the recent Hunter College bike-ped crash study:

I've got a question for the purported defenders of pedestrian safety who sit on the editorial boards at the Daily News and the Post. I know they haven't shown much interest in preventing the 10,000+ injuries and 150+ fatalities that motorists inflict on pedestrians in New York City each year, but the new Hunter College study on pedestrian injuries caused by cyclists has apparently piqued their interest in street safety. It seems we can all agree that the streets should be safer for walking.

Every year, the Department of Health releases a report on the injuries that kill NYC children [PDF]. And every year, the grim statistics show traffic to be the single largest cause of injury-related death among kids.

The New York City Department of Health is out with a new bulletin [PDF] articulating the public health benefits of walking, biking, and taking transit. Encouraging those modes -- and curbing the amount we drive -- will reduce deaths and injuries from traffic crashes, prevent lung disease by lowering exposure to air pollution, and improve cardiovascular health by increasing exercise.