{"81361":{"#nid":"81361","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tipping the Scales for Smart Growth: SMARTRAQ Demonstrates How Community Design Affects Travel Behavior, Air Quality and Health","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvery additional 30 minutes a person spends in a car translates into a 3 percent greater chance of being obese, according to the study, \u0022Obesity Relationships with Community Design, Physical Activity, and Time Spent in Cars,\u0022 published in the \u003Cem\u003EAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine \u003C\/em\u003Eon the Web in June and in print in August. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlso, the study shows that people who live in neighborhoods with a mix of shops and businesses within easy walking distance are 7 percent less likely to be obese, lowering their relative risk of obesity by 35 percent. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe $4 million, seven-year study, Strategies for Metropolitan Atlanta\u0027s Regional Transportation and Air Quality (SMARTRAQ), also reveals that higher levels of land-use mix, residential density, employer density and street connectivity are associated with:\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E* fewer vehicles miles traveled.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* reduced emissions contributing to air pollution.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* greater use of public transit.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n* increased physical activity\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The effect of urban form on travel behavior and health is one of the unique aspects of the project,\u0022 observed James Chapman, SMARTRAQ co-director and a researcher in the Georgia Tech Research Institute, where the project resides. \u0022How we plan and build our communities not only affects air pollution and how much we drive, but also people\u0027s likelihood of being physically inactive and obese.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESMARTRAQ, which is unusual in both size and scope, takes a holistic approach to land use, transportation and health issues. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt is the first study to demonstrate that the built environment immediately around people\u0027s homes is a good predictor of how much they weigh, says co-director and lead author Lawrence Frank. Now a professor at the University of British Columbia, Frank spearheaded SMARTRAQ in 1997 when he was an assistant professor of city planning at Georgia Tech. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Density and street connectivity also matter, but mixed use is the most important factor relating to physical activity and obesity,\u0022 Frank said. \u0022People need destinations to walk to.\u0022 But Frank also notes that density is required to create the demand for local retailers and other commercial activities to survive.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen researchers started SMARTRAQ, one of their challenges was to create a detailed database of land use for the 13-county metro Atlanta region. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESome of the required information was available from county tax assessors, but each county categorized its data differently, which made compilation a considerable task. Yet once completed, the SMARTRAQ database provided researchers with a new tool to analyze travel behavior. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Typically, trip generation is predicted solely from vehicle ownership, household income and household size,\u0022 Chapman explained. \u0022Yet the parcel-based SMARTRAQ database gives us an unprecedented depth of information, such as the square footage of buildings, density of the surrounding neighborhood and how close homes are to commercial buildings or stores.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe database then was used to help analyze information collected in a large-scale activity survey. Conducted in 2001 and 2002, this survey studied 8,000 Atlanta-area households - with special efforts to include low-income and minority groups often underrepresented in studies. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EResearchers wanted to know how people spent their time, where they traveled and how they reached those destinations.  In addition to subjective travel diaries, researchers used global positioning systems and accelerometers worn by people to collect objective measurements. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne portion of the survey focused on community preference. Researchers asked participants to choose between two neighborhoods (assuming that school quality, cost and safety were equal):\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E* A typical suburban setting where residents are dependent on cars for transportation and houses are spaced farther apart.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E* A \u0022smart growth\u0022 neighborhood where stores and restaurants lie within walking distance, train and bus stations are nearby and housing is a mix of single-family homes, townhouses and apartment buildings.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe verdict: Approximately one-third of respondents who live in the typical suburban setting said they would prefer to live in a smart-growth environment. Although this may be a minority, it remains a significant response, researchers say. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022SMARTRAQ shows there is an unmet demand for smart-growth neighborhoods,\u0022 Frank explained. \u0022Atlanta\u0027s development industry is known for churning out sprawl, and critics might argue that this is what people want because that\u0027s what they\u0027re buying. But they\u0027re buying it because they don\u0027t have many other choices.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Need to shed a few pounds? Besides counting calories and exercising, consider your home turf.  A comprehensive study done by the Georgia Institute of Technology shows the built environment clearly relates to a person\u0027s prospects for being overweight.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-05-30 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:38","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-05-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-05-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtresearchnews.gatech.edu\/newsrelease\/smartgrowth.htm","title":"Results applied"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=\u0022\u003EContact  \u003C\/a\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}