A discussion of "urban sprawl and public health: designing, planning, and building for healthy communities"

Urban Sprawl and Public Health, a timely publication by highly qualified authors, is another wake-up call about public policy decisions with respect to land use, transportation, and community design that adversely affect our health, civic involvement, and quality of life. Its thesis is that the designs of buildings and communities inhibit physical activity and social interactions and promote sedentary lifestyles and environmental pollution or degradation. The authors provide solution-oriented information to professionals, public officials, business and community leaders, and others who are concerned about protecting the environment and human health. They describe sprawl as the way land is used, the way people travel, and the way cities expand over large geographic areas. Such expansion increases distance between places of interest, makes walking and biking impractical, and increases reliance on automobiles for transportation. Although sprawl appears chaotic, the authors point out that it is well orchestrated and supported by public policy through cheap land, favorable tax codes, zoning regulations, lending practices, and the revolution in transportation. The latter made it possible for large numbers of people to live longer distances from work and commercial centers. But now that the forces that spun sprawl (e.g., concerns about sanitation, infectious diseases, noise, crime, industrial pollution, and exposed sewage) no longer represent a nuisance or a threat to safety, it is time to rethink public policies designed to encourage or support migration from urban centers.