Turning around a town's health

[Laura Corin]

I thought this was interesting.  Early days, but some statistics suggesting improvements:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49719086

[Scarlett]

That is very interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[Soror]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. I think it is a wonderful idea.

[HomeAgain]

I'd love to see initiatives like that happen in the U.S.  It sounds brilliantly simple, yet moderately effective.  When I first moved to Texas, my immediate thought was "this town does not want healthy people."  And it was true.  There were no sidewalks, but wide roads with no way to get across because there weren't crosswalks.  There was a TON of fast food restaurants available, but little to do except eat and church.  The public transportation was a joke to the public: no posted schedules, no real stops except sticks in the ground - which meant people didn't take it unless they had to, especially in terrible weather.  I gained weight and breathing problems.  And that's not an outlier.  Dh went to Mississippi for training for a bit and had the hardest time finding healthy activities and food.  He couldn't rent a bike (in a beach town!).  Buffets were the norm and serving sizes, oversized.  Same issue with the streets.

If communities don't encourage health, their people will be unhealthy.  Or rather, if they actively discourage health, it will affect their people.

[wintermom]

I love that article! Thanks so much for sharing. It's very inspiring.  And it's interesting that there is no mention of infrastructure, tax raise or climate. It's simply groups of people getting together and working with the facilities and activities they have, then planting the seeds of education and inspiration in individual people. 

[Laura Corin]

1 hour ago, wintermom said:

I love that article! Thanks so much for sharing. It's very inspiring.  And it's interesting that there is no mention of infrastructure, tax raise or climate. It's simply groups of people getting together and working with the facilities and activities they have, then planting the seeds of education and inspiration in individual people. 

Some things are more likely to be already in place in the UK. Most towns are more compact and have pavements (sidewalks). Because of the expense of driving, there is more public transport available. It's not perfect, but it's better than much of the US for walking around, in my experience.

[Pen]

Wow. Thanks for sharing that!

[wintermom]

14 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

Some things are more likely to be already in place in the UK. Most towns are more compact and have pavements (sidewalks). Because of the expense of driving, there is more public transport available. It's not perfect, but it's better than much of the US for walking around, in my experience.

It is a very small island that's been highly populated for a LOOOOOOOOONG time. Makes sense that it's set up differently than North America.

[Laura Corin]

13 minutes ago, wintermom said:

It is a very small island that's been highly populated for a LOOOOOOOOONG time. Makes sense that it's set up differently than North America.

I believe that a lot of towns had paved 'sidewalks' before the roads were made up. Our car inspection regime is also pretty tight, so it's hard to run an old cheap car, so young people, elderly people and poor people tend to take buses. Schools in cities don't run special buses, you just take public transport or walk.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I'd love to see initiatives like that happen in the U.S.  It sounds brilliantly simple, yet moderately effective.  When I first moved to Texas, my immediate thought was "this town does not want healthy people."  And it was true.  There were no sidewalks, but wide roads with no way to get across because there weren't crosswalks.  There was a TON of fast food restaurants available, but little to do except eat and church.  The public transportation was a joke to the public: no posted schedules, no real stops except sticks in the ground - which meant people didn't take it unless they had to, especially in terrible weather.  I gained weight and breathing problems.  And that's not an outlier.  Dh went to Mississippi for training for a bit and had the hardest time finding healthy activities and food.  He couldn't rent a bike (in a beach town!).  Buffets were the norm and serving sizes, oversized.  Same issue with the streets.

If communities don't encourage health, their people will be unhealthy.  Or rather, if they actively discourage health, it will affect their people.

The people who wrote Blue Zones have done some like this in the US. They have worked in particular towns to create structures mimicking the “blue zones” - locations in the world where people enjoy robust physical and mental health to advanced ages. Things like: creating walk-to-school groups, facilitating friendship groups, working with local restaurants to improve menu offerings, working with schools to improve cafeteria selections, and so on. 

It’s quite interesting and something I would like to see advanced in many other places. 

When we eventually move out of this home, I hope to move somewhere where walking and biking is safe and practical. It is neither where I live now. I would be so pleased if I could ride my bike to the library, or to a food market. 

[Arcadia]

3 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Some things are more likely to be already in place in the UK. Most towns are more compact and have pavements (sidewalks). Because of the expense of driving, there is more public transport available. It's not perfect, but it's better than much of the US for walking around, in my experience.

Some of the nice routes for walking in the region are gridlocks for drivers because the roads are narrow and single lane each direction. They are the downtown city kind of grid. Easier to walk than drive.

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

 Schools in cities don't run special buses, you just take public transport or walk.

 

While there are school busses here, traffic calming has been quite successful in “bike towns” with kids biking to schools and the neighborhood being generally supportive by watching out for kids biking.

Where I stay, drivers speed so parents drive kids to school even for less than 1km away.