Urban sprawl contributes to long commute times, which can have negative health effects. How can those with extended commute times lessen the negative effects and be as healthy as urban commuters?

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 Colorado’s 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 80’s and 90’s 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) 779–787
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): 369–375.
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

20. Results

21. Nurses’ Health Study

23. 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.

24. 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

25. Elimination
Substitution
Engineering
Administrative
PPE
Education

26. 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/

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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, 490–497.
• 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.

30. Questions?