Archive for the ‘ Environment/Health ’ Category

In 1969, 42% of children walked or biked to school.

In 2001, 16% of children walked or biked to school¹.

During a similar time period childhood obesity increased from 6.5% to 17%².

These stats are striking: about 2.5 times fewer children walk to school and about 2.5 times more children are obese.

Walk Scores for Schools

Wouldn’t you want your child’s school to be a walkers’ paradise? We’re excited to announce that Education.com is now showing Walk Scores for schools!

School Data on Walk Score

We’re also showing Education.com’s school data on all Walk Scores in the United States:

We’ll be doing more with walkable schools in the future—and we’re excited about this first step!

Here’s a surprising fact about “green” buildings: transportation to a building accounts for twice as much energy as operating the building¹.

USA Today reports that only one of the six green-home award winners picked by the U.S. Green Building Council has a Walk Score higher than 50.

Can a home or office really be green if the only way to get there is by car?

Kudos to Kaid Benfield at NRDC for saying it best here:

One result is that the added environmental benefit of the residences’ laudable green features will be offset by the environmental damage caused by the sites’ automobile dependence, poor environment for walking, and relative distance from jobs, shops and services.  Another result is that the public, the building industry, and policy makers will continue to be misled about how best to achieve true environmental performance in our built environment.

Did you know men are 3X as likely to bike to work as women?

Did you know weather matters less than you think?  Montana and Alaska have some of the coldest temperatures and highest levels of cycling.

What else don’t you know?! The Benchmarking Report from the Alliance for Biking and Walking is the most comprehensive report we’ve seen on bicycling and walking in the U.S.

I love all of the city rankings and state-by-state comparisons. Go Portland!  The #1 city for biking to work.

This video sums up why we’re so passionate about walkable neighborhoods.

I’m reading the GOOD Magazine Transportation issue and there’s so much important stuff in it I just can’t tweet all of it.  This issue is a great primer in transportation innovation—go forth and read!

In no particular order…

Great Joseph Sussman Interview: He’s an MIT prof and advisor to DoT.  Love this quote, “Charge cars on a per mile basis, depending on what road you were traveling, at what time of day, in what kind of car.”  He also explains why we’re not investing enough in high-speed rail.

Zach Dundas pines after the coolest bike in the world:

Innovative Buses in Bogotá:

And of course the Walk Score article:

We’re excited that the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s Living Building Challenge guidelines now include using Walk Score to aide in site selection. The GBC recommends not building within the 100 year flood plain “unless part of an existing historic community core developed prior to 1945, or a location classified by Walk Score (www.walkscore.com) with a minimum rating of 70.”

We’ve also had a number of people mention to us that Walk Score might be an easy way to calculate the Community Connectivity credit in the LEED Green Building Rating System.

There’s a compelling new book out that makes a strong case for walkable, urban neighborhoods actually being more affordable than their suburban counterparts. Growing Cooler argues that once commute time and transportation costs are taken into account, living in less dense areas can become more expensive than living in dense communities where a car isn’t as necessary to get around.

There’s a great article supporting Growing Cooler’s point, citing evidence that housing values in denser neighborhoods are holding steady or rising. This is in contrast to the steep drop-offs seen in suburban areas outside cities.

This Growing Cooler movement really challenges the old real estate saying, “Drive ’til you qualify”.