Tuesday Morning Commute - Gordo

At the pool tonight there was an adult "learn to swim" class going on. Which got me thinking of the Times transportation reporter who was learning to bike. Brett Stewart - or someone like him - should find someone who doesn't know how to swim or bike (statistically, such people must exist, right?) and get them from there to the point where they can finish a sprint triathlon. It would make for a good story.

• The St. Elizabeths East Bike Carnival is on August 25th. 
• DC is among the least fat "states" in the USA where only slightly less than 1 in 4 residents are obese. Colorado is tops at 20.7%. "Partnerships with initiatives like Capital Bikeshare and the D.C. Healthy Corner Store Program, which promotes access to fresh produce and low-fat foods in needy neighborhoods, also play a role in the [Washington, DC's] efforts [to promote healthy living]."
• Montgomery County is worried that adding bike sharing risks increased crashing - because that is what has happened nowhere that similar programs have started. Still, it's hard to argue with the efforts that are planned. "as the county nears its program launch, Leggett said it will look at education and safety initiatives for cyclists, as well as motorist and pedestrians, to help mitigate safety concerns. He also said the county will look at where it can “engineer” the roads with features such as bike lanes to aid in safety....Montgomery County looks to place about 50 bikeshare stations along both legs of Metro’s Red Line starting around Silver Spring, Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, Forest Glen, Takoma Park and Bethesda as the first two phases of the project, Esther Bowring, a county spokeswoman, said in an email. The first stations are expected to open in spring of 2013...Silver Spring, Bethesda, Forest Glen, Wheaton-Glenmont and Germantown were identified by police as the county’s “high-incident areas,” with nine crashes reported in Silver Spring, eight in Bethesda and six in Forest Glen, five in Germantown and four in Wheaton, according to the data."

Comments

[Early Man]

I know the Washington Times is a big fan of subjective math but how does this statement: "The CDC says 35 percent of Americans are obese, a condition that leaves them at greater risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer" jibe with the reported fact that the highest obesity rate in the country is 34.9% in Mississippi?

[MM]

@Early Man

I hate to defend the Times, but they pulled the numbers directly from the CDC. I assume the seeming disparity comes from the widely variable state populations. Add up the total number of obese people in the country, divide that by the total number of people, and you get the 35.7 percent number. So for example, 24% of California's 38 million residents are obese...that's over 9 million people, which is 3x the overall population of Mississippi. Repeat that for states like Texas, New York, etc, and it starts to make more sense. That's about all the math my brain can muster, but I can sort of envision how the numbers work out.

[T]

@MM & Early Man

They're using two different sets of data. The national rate is based off an NIH study. The state rates are based off self-reporting. Hence the difference. They also use BMI charts sans chest circumference measurements for national data while stome states use the chest measurements given they indicate increased bone mass. Anyway, when did CDC add Prevention to their official name? I totally missed it!

It sounds like Montgomery County is finding some excuse for delay (funding, maybe?). Realistically, DC added more Bike Share and the rate of bicycle accidents declined. Even with that aside, most of those accidents are in areas of heavy trail us (Silver Spring, Bethesda, Takhoma Park, etc). When approaching MoCo, don't presume logic will prevail. These are the same folks who have suggested building a countywide monorail system at one point and whom wanted a bill forbidding the crazies at Pepco from cutting trees without the owner's permission...as if that would magically help restoration. Just file some petition with 10k signatures, call it green, call it progressive and lament any lack action of it as them lacking true conviction, and you will get what you want.

[Early Man]

@T Thanks for the clarification. I guess it didn't dawn on the Times reporter that there was a contradiction in the story.

@MM Thanks for your great description of subjective math: "sort of envision how the numbers work out."

[charlie]

DC's self reported obesity for whites is the lowest in the country. Midtown manhatten levels. Based on walking around here, I'd say the problem is DC's self reporting rates.

Not to mention to area code problems.

[SBG]

Montgomery County is prudent to look at the safety issue for bike sharing at those locations. At each one mentioned there is high traffic volume and in some cases high vehicle speeds that need to be considered. Ever try to cross Georgia Avenue at the Forest Glen metro as a pedestrian or bicyclist? Not easy nor safe despite recent improvements including the bridge over the Beltway. I for one am all for traffic calming efforts.

[jch]

I didn't know how to swim and took all 3 adult learn to swim classes through DC DPR from Dec thru April. However, i did know how to bike. I finished my first sprint tri over the weekend and plan to do some more next season.

I think there are probably more people who can't swim than can't bike out there. Someone who can't do either would be rare.

[T]

@SBG, traffic calming how? It's a huge volume road and you won't change that given it's history (it was a toll road back in the Civil War, if you recall). The only real way around that is by creating ways to go over or under it similar to what they did on Rt 29, but that may be unrealistic given how close some of the neighborhoods are to the road. Quite frankly, I have crossed it at many places from DC up through Howard County as a pedestrian and cyclist. It's a busy road no doubt, but I never encountered huge problems. Crossing East-West Highway a few blocks down from Georgia Ave at the alleged crosswalk (the thing is lit up with blinking lights, neon green highlighted signs and raised crosswalk bumps) is far tougher.

[Michael H.]

I've met adults who are terrified of the water. They won't even go into a 3-foot deep pool, despite being over 5'7". (The movie "The Big Bad Swim" has a character like this. I was surprised to discover that some people are actually like that.)

As for the obesity statistics, while it's nice that Colorado and D.C. are relatively healthy compared to other states now, it's also very revealing to compare those numbers to previous years.

I checked some of the stats last year. The top states like Colorado had obesity rates around 20-21%. Sounds OK, I guess. All of the other states had higher rates of obesity.

But look at numbers from the early 1980s. EVERY single state back then had obesity rates lower than 20-21%. So the Colorado of 2012 would actually be worse than every state from the early 80s!

Things have gotten much worse over the last 25 years, in terms of obesity and the related healthcare costs and associated problems (heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes). At least the obesity rates have started to level off over the past couple years. But we still need to work on lowering those rates, for many reasons. Quality of life, productivity and economic. (There's no way that the country or the industrialized world can cope with the ever increasing costs of rising obesity rates. Doesn't matter what the national insurance scheme is like, whether it's the U.S. system or a typical European system.)

Eat better. Move more.

[UGG Sko]

Støtte kraft i tillegg til å ha et godt forhold med overdel har en direkte sammenheng med strukturen i MBT joggesko sko såler.