As much as people like to jump up and down about public health issues like cigarettes or even guns, what I find interesting is how few people seriously talk abo

As much as people like to jump up and down about public health issues like cigarettes or even guns, what I find interesting is how few people seriously talk about the car being one of the biggest public health crises to originate in the 20th century. There is of course the direct effect of the hundreds of thousands of vehicular related deaths per year (globally) as well as serious injuries but there are a bunch of other effects. One of these is the change in urban planning where life is centered around the car such that Americans, in particular, walk far less than people in other countries [1]. There's a big difference here between walking and needing to walk. People in NYC for example pretty much need to walk. I'm not saying it's impossible to become obese when your daily life requires you or even just encourages you to walk more but it sure makes it more difficult. [1] http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/why_don_t_americans_walk_more_the_crisis_of_pedestrianism_.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/why_don_t...