Creating A Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health
When people consider factors adversely affecting their health, they generally focus on influences, such as poor diet or the need for more exercise. Rarely do they consider less traditional factors, such as housing characteristics, land-use patterns, transportation choices, or architectural or urban-design decisions, as potential health hazards. However, when these factors are ignored or poorly executed, the ecosystems in our communities collapse, people suffer the consequences. We have always known that a 2-hour commute to work each day on America’s freeways is not a pleasant experience; it is also becoming clear that it is an unhealthy experience. We see evidence every day that Americans exercise less often and suffer higher levels of stress than they did in the past. Yet we often fail to make the connection between these all-too-common facets of everyday life and how unhealthy we are. As America increasingly becomes a nation that permits and even encourages thoughtless development and unmanaged growth, the impact of these factors grows clearer, we ignore them at our peril.
