For Mark Fenton, a former world-class race walker and an engineer who travels the country energetically pushing health-conscious urban design, the development choices that cities make are literally life and death.
Americans are killing themselves with inactivity and poor diets, he told officials from Bloomington, Edina and Richfield last week. Cities must make it easier for people to walk and bike as part of their daily routine.
The mayors, council members, engineers and public health officials in the group were receptive. But Fenton never met Richfield homeowner Cheri Wright, who isn't crazy about the bike and walking path built across her side yard on W. 75th Street this summer.
Wright said she likes to walk, but she doesn't see the need for a trail through her rambler-filled neighborhood.
"I can understand going around lakes or around a pretty area, but why would you want to just go around a neighborhood?" Wright asked.
Bridging theory and ideals with reality is the challenge for city officials, who sat down in groups after Fenton's presentation to talk about how to build more streets and developments that lure people into being active. No one questioned the worth of encouraging physical activity at a time when, as Fenton pointed out, an estimated 365,000 Americans die prematurely each year from causes linked to inactivity and poor diets.
Unless today's kids exercise more and eat less, he said, this may be the first American generation to live shorter lives than their parents.
Even 30 minutes of brisk walking each day improves health, Fenton said, but less than a quarter of American adults maintains that level of activity. He said study after study shows that the best way to encourage exercise is not to build trails just in parks or run short-term reward programs, but to have paths for walkers and bicyclists that are part of a network and lead to destinations where people need and want to go.