Transportation
Combating Obesity with Street Design
A new manual from L.A. County seeks to improve public health via the built environment
Almost a quarter of adults in Los Angeles County are overweight. It’s a problem the local public health department is trying to solve in various ways, from healthy eating campaigns to physical activity programs. Now, officials are taking that fight to the streets. Literally.
Today, the county’s Department of Public Health is releasing its “Model Design Manual for Living Streets,” a guide intended to make streets more active, usable, and healthy for residents. Essentially it’s urban planning as an anti-obesity measure, and its authors want every city to use it.