WAYNE'S WORDS
April 23, 2005
TOPIC : What's wrong with this picture?

What in the world is going on?
When we get in our car and drive to a fitness center to get on a treadmill and run in place for an hour, to me, there is something wrong.
It gets even scarier thinking that the people who do workout at a fitness center with an escalator are people who are concerned about their heath. What about the other 90+% of Americans who don't workout?
It's good people are working out, but there has to be a better way to do all this.
One problem is diet. 66% of adults in this country are overweight or obese. There goes our health care cost.
33% of our kids are that way. Type 2 diabetes is showing up in kids. That's never happened before.
We Americans eat too much and what we eat has too much sugar and fat.
But in combination with our poor eating habits is a total lack of any type of aerobic activity on the part of MOST Americans.
A big cause of this problem is that people are so use to just jumping into their car to go anyplace.
Cities don't design roads for bikers, walkers, or runners because, so far, there hasn't been a big demand.
People don't walk, bike, or run anyplace because the roads aren't designed for anything except cars. It's a catch 22.
Now, I know I'm preaching to the choir again, but maybe we, who are aware of the benefits of exercise and proper nutrition, can help others to get on the right track in terms of fitness and nutrition before our whole population turns into big blobs of fat, sitting in a car or at a desk 18 hours a day never getting our heart rate above 40% of our max.
A thought popped into my head last Sunday as I was biking. I did 22 miles, which is about how far I have to drive to work everyday. If there were a trail or a bike lane from my house to work I'd probably bike to work sometime. I'm sure there are others that would do the same.
But I don't
Not to make excuses, but St. Louis isn't really set up as a bike commuter friendly type of place.
We are getting better about bike lanes and trails, but the average St Lousian isn't going to bike, walk or run to work or anyplace else unless:
A. Biking, walking, or running to that "place" is safe and enjoyable
B. People understand the benefits of exercise
C. Driving a car becomes too expensive
D. People don't think you're crazy for doing it.
E. Work places have locker rooms and showers for bike commuters.
F. We live closer to where we work and we work closer to where we live.
Somehow we can reduce our problems with obesity and poor health by getting people to move via bike or walking or running to wherever they what to get too.
But until cities design roads and trails that encourage people to leave their cars at home and use people power to get around these problems are going to get worse.
I know, I know, it's like, quit your bitchin'.
But in order to find a solution you have to identify the problem.
There are towns that are bike/runner/walker friendly.
If you ever visit Columbia, Missouri check out how major roads have bike lanes. The MKT Trail goes right through the heart of the city out to the SW suburbs. People use those lanes and trails all the time.
One thing Columbia did 20 years ago, when I was down there in grad school, was every time they repaved a road or built a new one they added a bike lane on both sides. Gradually Columbia has most major roadways setup with bike lanes.
Their goal is to have everyone in the city within 5 minutes of a bike lane or trail to be able to get anywhere in the city.
That's how you have to plan if your going to get people out of their cars, and walking, running or biking to get around.
Wildwood is starting to do a good job of repaving and widening their roads.
We all need to be patient and keep encouraging our civic leaders to start and continue to improve our roads and trail systems to encourage people to get out of the damn car and start using people power to get around.

Until next time,
Train smart, live right.

Wayne
whuckshold@yahoo.com