1. Is Your Morning Commute Killing You? A Look at Urban Sprawl and Your Health EHOH 6614 Spring 2014

2. Outline Relevance Definition of Urban Sprawl Index Evidence of Disease Causation Hierarchy of Control Solutions 3. The Daily Grind There is an estimated 145,266,000 employed workers in the U.S.1 79.9% of workers who commute do so by alone, by car 2 Average one way commute time is 25.5 minutes 1Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 7, 2014 2United States Census Bureau, March 5, 2013 4. Linkedin Poll Under 20 min 22% 20-40 min 41% 40-60 min 12% More than 60 min 3% Walk/mass transit/other 22% Travel time by Car 5. Supersized Travel Megacommutes 90 minutes AND 50 miles each way In the U.S. 600,000 workers are Megacommuters Megacommuting hotspots include L.A. and N.Y. United States Census Bureau, March 5, 2013 6. Why are we going so far? In 1960, 28.2% of Colorados population lived in Denver County In 2010, only 11.9% of the population lived in Denver Similar situations in other cities Chicago/Illinois - 35.2% in 1960 vs 21.0% 2010 Atlanta/Georgia - 12.4% vs 4.3% Phoenix/Arizona - 33.7% vs 22.6% U.S. Census Data 7. The Urban Exodus During the 80s and 90s Denver County experienced a NEGATIVE population growth This was in-part due to increased popularity of new suburban areas Colorado Denver County Thornton Parker Highlands Ranch 1960 1,753,947 493,887 11,353 N/A N/A 1970 2,207,259 514,678 13,326 N/A N/A 1980 2,889,964 492,365 42,054 290 N/A 1990 3,294,394 467,610 55,031 5,450 10,181 2000 4,301,262 554,636 82,384 23,558 70,931 2010 5,029,196 600,158 118,772 45,297 96,713 U.S. Census Data 8. Parker, Colorado 1993 & 2012 Population 6,000 Population 60,000 9. Quantifying Urban Sprawl Sprawl Index Score Factors Residential Density Factor Mix of homes, jobs & services Strength of town centers/downtowns Accessibility of street network The lower the score, the greater the degree of sprawl Smart Growth America, 2002 10. Spinning Your Wheels by Not Spinning Your Wheels On average, in the U.S. you will waste 12.5 hour per year stuck in traffic If you live in some cities, the amount of time lost will be much greater Denver - 23.3 hrs Chicago - 33.7 hrs New York - 52.9 hrs Los Angeles - 64.4 hrs INRIX Traffic Scorecard, trailing 12 month period from Dec. 2013 11. Wasting Away Again in Highwayville The time in the car takes away time from things like: Cooking homemade meals Physical activity Relaxation Sleep 12. Items to Think About How do these aspects of our built environment effect our health? How can urban sprawl and commuting traffic be controlled? How can the negative health effects be prevented? 13. Z. Zhao, R. Kaestner / Journal of Health Economics 29 (2010) 779787 Effects of urban sprawl on obesity Positive association between sprawl index and obesity/BMI Berrigan et al. International Journal of Health Geographics 2014, 13:3 Urban sprawl, obesity, and cancer mortality in the US Positive association between sprawl index and obesity/BMI Am J Public Health. 2013 February ; 103(2): 369375. Urban sprawl, physical activity, and BMI index: NHS and NHS II Positive association between sprawl index and obesity/BMI 14. Urban Sprawl & Chronic Disease Primary Outcome: BMI, Physical Activity level, and a dx of CAD, DM, HTN 15. Results 16. Nurses Health Study 17. Significant Findings Living in a dense, compact county may be conducive to higher levels of physical activity and lower BMI in women. Because the majority of the US population is exposed to some type of sprawl, even small effect sizes may be of large public health importance through their effects on physical activity and BMI. 18. What are we doing to protect our health? Healthy People 2020 objectives: Increase community scale policies for the built environment that enhance access to and availability of physical activity opportunities. Increase the proportion of trips 1 mile or less made by walking adults. Increase the proportion of trips 5 miles or less made by bicycling adults. HealthyPeople.gov 2020 Goals and objectives 19. Elimination Substitution Engineering Administrative PPE Education 20. Hierarchy of Controls Elimination No more cars! Substitution Active Transportation Engineering Designing for health Administrative Health-centered policy PPE Safer streets Education Public awareness http://doitrightat9th.com/ 21. Your Thoughts Bolster public transit. Add cheap bicycle rentals. -Zach O. Focus on policy change. -Kathryn C. Listen to an interesting podcast. -Amy K. Enhance safety to draw in more active commuters. -Holly V. 22. Conclusion Urban sprawl has contributed to an increase in car commuting Spending significant amounts of time in the car can have negative health effects Substitution, Engineering, and Educational Controls have been the most successful in reducing the health effects Creative solutions that require organizations and government to work together to reduce this environmental hazard 23. Resources Gordon-Larsen, P., Boone-Heinonen, J., Sidney, S., Sternfeld, B., Jacobs Jr, D., & Lewis, C. (2009). Active Commuting and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The CARDIA Study. JAMA Internal Medicine, 1216-1223. Hamer, M., & Chida, Y. (2008). Active commuting and cardiovascular risk: A meta-analytic review. Preventive Medicine, 9-13. Hu, G., Jousilahti, P., Borodulin, K., Barengo, N., Lakka, T., Nissinen, A., & Tuomilehto, J. (2007). Occupational, commuting and leisure-time physical activity in relation to coronary heart disease among middle-aged Finnish men and women. Atherosclerosis, 490497. Rutsch, R. (2008). The Role of Public Transit in Sustainable Communities. Research Monologue, The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute Klop, J. (2008) Complete Streets. Research Monologue, The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute. 24. Questions?