1. What are the main points of the 2006 Scorecard?

We shape our cities and our neighborhoods—and thereafter, they shape us (to paraphrase Winston Churchill). This year’s Scorecard reports the region’s progress in seven key trends, focusing on a growing body of research that establishes a connection between community design and human health.

Studies show that well-designed, compact communities can promote good health by:

• reducing car crashes;
• promoting exercise and thus reducing the risk of obesity;
• reducing vehicle-related air pollution;
• and (possibly) by promoting social ties that buoy health.

In addition to sprawl and health, the book also covers five other indicators of progress.

2. How is the Northwest doing overall?

• Human communities continue to do reasonably well: We’re living longer, we’re healthier, and the economy is, in most cases, not worsening.
• But the region could do a much better job of designing communities that give residents more—and healthier—choices of how to live and move around.
• If the Northwest were to curb sprawl by a modest amount, residents could save tens of millions of dollars in medical and other costs related to obesity, physical inactivity, and car crashes.
• But the Northwest’s impacts on nature continue to pose pressing challenges to the region’s well-being, such as high energy use. Partly as a result, several key wildlife species including orcas and caribou are struggling, as the Scorecard’s new wildlife index indicates.

3. What are your top findings about community design, health, and obesity?

• There is a significant association between low-density sprawl and poor health.
• Living in a neighborhood where walking is convenient and destinations are nearby can encourage active transportation in daily routines—boosting physical activity and reducing obesity. Residents of compact, walkable neighborhoods walk more and weigh less.
• Residents of “walkable” neighborhoods are less likely to be obese than are residents of more-sprawling locales.
• Once income, education, and other relevant factors are taken into account, people living in sprawling areas also tend to suffer substantially more chronic ailments—including diabetes, asthma, and hypertension—than people in more compact, transit- and pedestrian-friendly locales.
• Furthermore, compact neighborhoods allow people to drive less. Less driving reduces the risk of car crashes—the number-one killer of young people in the Pacific Northwest.

4. Are sprawl-related health problems getting worse?

• Obesity rates in the Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho have more than doubled since 1990 and estimates suggest that obesity-related ailments kill 4,300 residents of the states each year, and 112,000 nationally.
• Obesity trends in British Columbia are moving in the same direction as in the Northwest states, though only about one-fourth as fast; still, about 1 in 9 residents of the province is obese.
• And obesity rates are rising particularly fast among children.
• Some diseases related to obesity and sedentary lifestyles—including diabetes—are clearly on the rise.

5. Is there a connection between community ties (social capital) and health?

The gradual unraveling of social bonds in the United States may be shortening our lives.

Pedestrian-friendly community design seems to help foster neighborhood ties. Compact neighborhoods with a mix of housing types may also meet the housing needs of residents over many stages of life. Maintaining such social ties can be particularly effective at buoying the health of the elderly.

6. Which part of Cascadia ranks best at healthy community design?

British Columbia. The province’s cities are the region’s most compact—particularly Vancouver. The province’s obesity rate is about half that of the Northwest states, and its car-crash fatality risk is one-third. And its residents live an average of more than two years longer (81.1 compared to 78.8 years).

7. Which Northwest area is doing worst?

Idaho has the region’s worst record for car-crash fatalities (21.6 annual deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 9.8 for BC); and uses the most energy per person. 

And based on Census data, Boise remains the Northwest’s most spread-out major municipality. Abundant land for development, sufficient supplies of water, and liberal zoning practices and transportation and road investments have facilitated sprawl.

8. What factors in a neighborhood besides density encourage physical activity?

• An interconnected street grid that provides direct routes to nearby destinations;
• A mixture of residences, stores, and businesses, that bring destinations close to homes;
• A safe and pleasant streetscape with pedestrian amenities such as sidewalks, shade trees, moderate traffic, and shops lining sidewalks.
  

9. What are the most important solutions for the region to adopt?

(See also “Cascadia Scorecard 2006: Solutions for Healthier Communities.”)

Policy innovations that encourage compact, walkable design, including: fostering a blend of stores and services in residential areas, creating better street connections, easing parking requirements, and allowing infill development.

As a region, when we make planning and transportation decisions, we should consider the long-term health effects.

10. What kinds of steps can ordinary citizens take?

• When you move, think about the layout of the community where you’d like to live. Are there stores and services close by, or within a short drive? Are the streets designed to be pedestrian-friendly?
• Pay attention to zoning decisions and other policies that affect the shape of your community and support efforts to increase infill, add pedestrian amenities, and mix residences and shops.
• Walk! Burning just ten extra calories per day—the amount burned during a two- to three- minute walk—can prevent a pound of weight gain per year.