What can we do about the obesity epidemic?

[tabbycat31]

210. I'm not sure where you live

But I can tell that it is either a city or near a city. Buses and trains only run in major cities and the surrounding areas. I've lived in urban and rural areas over the last few years, and I can tell you that only 3 of the 6 areas I've worked in had public transportation. In fact some didn't even have taxi service available. And everything in rural areas is so spread out, it's not shocking to see houses that are 1/2 mile from the nearest neighbor. If you didn't have a car, you either had to rely on friends/family or you were SOL.

(There are several mid size and larger cities in the US that could use a better public transportation system, but try getting funding for that in this political climate).

As for bike commuting, again I'm not sure where you live, but I personally know nobody who does that (this could vary greatly by area). To me, bike commuting is an abstract concept I've only heard about online. In this neck of the woods, often the summers are too hot and the winters are too cold and snowy. So that would leave you half the year to commute by bike in good weather. IN the last week or so, we've been under flash flood advisories and the sky has completely opened up, so you have to take that into account. And most employers would not want their employees to come to work looking like a drowned rat.

I'm saying this as a municipal planner's daughter but getting a city to install bike lanes and/or mass transit is not easy. Without mentioning the financial costs of mass transit, I know from the stories my dad has told me that people don't want to view riding a bike as fitness or leisure instead of transportation. There's no way in hell that bike lanes would be approved in the town my dad works for (bedroom community for a MAJOR city-- one of the few in the country where having a car is a burden. The train ride would be about an hour each way). I'll confirm this with my dad next time I talk to him, but I will put money on the fact that the people in his municipality would not approve of bike lanes for commuters.

Another factor to mention is the capacity for bikes on mass transit. One of the cities I used to live in (when my car broke down and I used the bus system) had 1-2 bikes allowed per bus depending on the bus (if the bus had a rack in the front for the bike). I just looked up the transit system that services my dad's town, and they allow a maximum of 4 bikes per rush hour train. So if even one municipality on the train line encouraged people to bike commute, that would fill up the capacity (I do realize you can park your bike at the station too but not everyone will depending on if they need it on the other end).

I rode my bike to school as a kid (4-6 blocks in a suburban area depending on the school I attended) and it was difficult even then. Nobody wanted bike riders on the sidewalk, and my parents were uncomfortable with a 3rd grader riding on the streets.