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Driven to Obesity: The Collateral Damage of Car-Dependent Cities

Writer's picture: Christopher RyanChristopher Ryan

I will come right out of the gate and say it. Walking is by far the single most underappreciated and underutilized activity in the human arsenal of exercises.


The precursors to modern humans began walking as we know it, on two feet, about 7 million years ago. The average modern human in prehistoric times is believed to have walked about 8 miles a day or 16,000 steps. Compare that to the average American today who walks about 2 ½ miles per day or 5,000 steps, and it is pretty evident that we are walking less than we once did… a lot less.


This shift is notable throughout the industrialized world. For example, in Japan the average person walks about 7,000 steps and in Switzerland just under 10,000 steps. This drop off in walking is largely due to the rise of civilization as the dawn of planes, trains, and automobiles has played an increasingly significant role in us walking less than we once did in the distant past. But why is it that Americans in particular are walking far less than those in other countries, and could whatever is driving us to walk less also be one of the reasons why the United States is among the most obese countries in the world?


Importance of walking


Walking on two feet is fundamentally human. Believe it or not, we have an uncanny ability to traverse extraordinarily long distances with little or no rest which is almost unmatched within the animal kingdom. While it’s easy to think of humans as weaker, slower, and less athletic than the rest of the animal world, the truth is that we possess a number of extraordinarily peculiar traits.


For instance, the mechanics of walking upright on two feet require considerably less energy than walking on four legs as most other animals do. Additionally our ability to sweat and our comparatively “hairless” skin, which enables quick evaporation of sweat, gives us the power to keep our core body temperatures cooler than most other animals. These highly evolved traits means that we are able to move ourselves across long distances using less energy, and we have a built-in cooling system that keeps us from overheating.


This enabled us to track animals over long distances until they collapsed from heat exhaustion, a process known as persistence hunting.


The rise of civilization


Most of our history is one of living as hunter-gatherers and nomads, but with advancements in agriculture, we began building permanent settlements that were the foundations of cities. Although the path was not linear, over time cities did become larger and more sophisticated. However, one thing remained fairly consistent throughout. Walking was the primary form of transportation. Cities were designed accordingly such that most daily errands could be accomplished by foot. This has been the case in cities across the globe and throughout history from ancient Mesopotamia to early 19th century Boston.


Between the mid 1800s and early 1900s there were some changes in how people moved around, thanks to railroads, streetcars, and the emergence of public transit systems in large cities, but this technology mostly supplemented walking rather than replacing it altogether.


Car-Centric Urban Development


Starting in the early 1900s and accelerating in the 1950s following WW2, car-ownership became ubiquitous in America. While most of the cities that rose to prominence in pre-war times such as New York and Chicago already had a walkable infrastructure that was established prior to the automobilization of America, many of the country’s fastest-growing cities in the second half of the 20th century (Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, etc.) were designed specifically around the car, which became the preferred mode of transportation. This also explains why American cities are more sprawling compared to their much older European counterparts which were established in Medieval or, in some cases, Imperial Roman times.



This new car-centric urban design that became the status quo has led to the rise of car-dependent communities in which one will spend a collective average of 4.3 years of his or her life inside self-propelled steel cages on highways and major arterial roads rather than being able to simply walk from point A to point B, maybe with the aid of a tram to bridge the distance. Vibrant streets full of pedestrians and lined with locally owned establishments have given way to large boulevards and highways that are less than pleasant to be on when not in a car, and devoid of any human activity outside of driving.


The abandonment of “walkable design” has made it unappealing to be a would-be pedestrian. Urban layout of many American cities makes walking dangerous, unnecessarily time-consuming, boring, and sometimes logistically infeasible. The car has essentially become a prosthetic that we NEED rather than an item of convenience. In many cities in the US, even a quick run to the store to pick up a pack of batteries or toilet paper requires jumping into the car and driving for a distance to the closest store. Even when the straight line distance of a destination is short, the pedestrian must trek through an obstacle course of highways, crosswalks, major intersections, lack of sidewalks, expansive parking lots, and very roundabout ways to get to the destination.


A very quick way to gage the walkability of any city or neighborhood is by searching your area on walkscore.com. In case you were wondering, below I’ve compiled a list of the walkscores for the 50 largest cities in the United States.


As you can see in the chart above, the older cities which were built prior to the rise of the automobile tend to be the most walkable, while the cities that have exploded in population over the past 5 or 6 decades are mostly car-dependent.


This isn’t an anti-car article. Rather it is an essay which highlights how we have built modern environments, especially in the U.S., that have made walking as a form of transportation, even for very minor errands, extraordinarily infeasible to the point where even someone who wants to enjoy a nice walk cannot do so in a practical manner.


The result is a precipitous drop in the number of daily steps taken, and fewer miles per day walked.


The switch to automobiles is a form of cultural evolution, in which our technology-enabled lifestyles have evolved much faster than our biological hardware, and this is not without consequences.


Obesity and Modern Car-Centricity


I plotted this graph of 2020 obesity rate data compared to walk scores for the list of cities from above, and we can see a clear trend. As cities become more walkable, obesity rate tends to go down. I should note that that there are many other factors that influence obesity so the correlation will not be very high, but the trend is undeniable. Odds are that living in a car-dependent environments will increase your chances of gaining unwanted body weight, while the effect is less so in walkable areas.

But, exactly how much higher are the odds? I have you covered there as well. I also grouped all 50 cities into one of three buckets based on their walkability ranking, and we can see that that there is about a 9 percentage point difference in obesity rates between the most walkable cities and the least walkable cities. In other words, the obesity rate jumps by 36 % between very walkable and car-dependent cities.

As noted before, walking is one of the most fundamentally human things we can do. Yet, particularly in America we have virtually eradicated the need for extensive walking out of our lives. Walking as a mode of transportation has been reduced to moving one’s self to and from the car. Some of us go to great lengths to minimize that distance as well by fighting for the nearest parking spot to our destination. And in some cases I literally do mean fighting.


I also find it interesting that we Americans tend to greatly enjoy taking vacations to destinations that are highly walkable, or attempt to simulate walkability. Take the Las Vegas Strip for example, as the many hotels curate experiences that eliminate the need for a car, making life for your average visitor much more enjoyable. Ironically, many of these attractions merely mimic actual walkable cities such as Paris, Venice, and New York City.


Health Implications


I find a great deal of irony that human evolution is oftentimes represented by the illustration of a primate walking on all fours and eventually transitioning into a human walking upright. Perhaps this illustration should be modified to show the next phase of humanity, a human not walking at all and sitting in a car instead. I fear that our hyper-reliance on personal vehicles as an all-purpose transportation replacement rather than a supplement to walking has marked the turning point at which dysevolution of our ability as ultra endurance athletes has begun. What we do not use, we will lose.


And the results are beginning to show. Extreme car-dependency in American cities is reducing physical activity, contributing to the rise in the laundry list of chronic diseases that are most common today. I need not list them here because you likely know them all too well.


Walking may seem to not cause a huge difference because it’s such a low intensity workout that doesn’t seem to require much energy compared to other workouts. But because the rise from walking on all fours to walking on two feet is so synonymous with humanity, I’d suggest that walking is the single most foundational exercise that we learn shortly after birth.


Through routine walking you will help yourself to maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat. You will also enjoy better insulin regulation which could ultimately prevent many of the “diseases of civilization” including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes.


The health benefits do not end there. Through frequent and daily walks you can improve cardiovascular fitness, increase bone density, build endurance, and increase your energy levels.


In addition to the physical health benefits, walking is known to be very therapeutic, as it can give us time to break away from the stresses of life and spend time in our own thoughts. In fact, according to Stanford University, walking boosts creative thinking by as much as 60%. It should be noted that many of the world’s greatest breakthroughs in science and the arts came about during long walks.


Winston Churchill, Steve Jobs, Charles Darwin, and Freiderich Nietzcshe were all avid walkers, and Aristotle opened up the Peripatos (The Walking School) in which philosophical discussions were conducted while… you guessed it…. Walking.


Walk more... a lot more


I’m a big believer in only worrying about what you can control. In this case, short of voting, becoming an urban planner, or being in a position to form policy, there isn't much we can do to change the nature of our cities and the resulting car-dependency. So we must focus on adapting by altering our lifestyles to include more walking.


Think about the city or town that you live in, and observe whether it is conducive to walking or not. Do you have no choice but to use your car for everything, or are there some areas in your life where you can incorporate walking into your lifestyle and routines?


If you are able to complete some or most of your errands by walking, then consider saving the gas money, strapping on your walking shoes, and getting a low intensity workout in while taking care of your tasks for the day. Incorporating walking into your everyday life is one of the easiest ways to protect the metabolism and prevent unwanted weight gain.


However, if you do happen to live in an area that is car-dependent, and walking as transportation is all but impossible then you will have to be a bit more intentional about ensuring that you walk more.


I recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of dedicated walking every day, preferably in an area where walking is ideal, but if not then a simple walk around the neighborhood, around the block, or in the work parking lot all count. Use a treadmill as a last resort.


Pull up Google Maps and identify parks, trails, or sections of your city or town which you can spend a leisurely weekend walking outside.


In the off chance that you are looking to move to a new city or a new part of town, consider checking out the walkscore so that you are at least informed about walkability as you make your decisions.


Whatever you do, make sure you tap into this highly evolved trait that defines humans in many ways.


Do not become a casualty of your car-centric environment.... walk more.

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About 
UNLEASHING
SAVAGE

UNLEASHING SAVAGE is for those who wish to live more intentionally for greater health, quality of life, and fulfillment.

Navigating the modern societal blueprint can make it easy to become disconnected from nature. This is evidenced by rising instances of chronic disease and struggles with mental health, along with lack of a clear sense of purpose.

I created this movement to help busy corporate professionals and entrepreneurs slow down, reconnect with nature, and live in greater alignment with what matters most to them.

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