By the topic title of course I'm giving a nod to the bike share, but also, just anything really that makes biking more approachable.
Posting because I just saw this:
http://synthpopviewer.rti.org/obesity/viewer.html, a pretty granular map of obesity rates. Acknowledging the (relatively pathetic) limitations of BMI, I do think not individually, but in visualizations like this, they do highlight environments likely to be obesogenic.
From the standpoint of serving public good, part is uptake which would be somewhat correlated with green clusters, but another part is who stands to benefit the most which is inarguably correlated with red clusters.
So, my dear squirrel hill already looks pretty healthy even without healthy ride. They'd probably get used there, but from a public health standpoint, the greater payoff is probably elsewhere.
One thing I'd like to see after this visualization (it's true that I wanted this way anyway, but in a more bike=better way, not in so focused a way) is that having a furnicular or better still, these
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampe_bicycle_lift from the strip to the hill district. If it weren't for that climb back, the hill, just by its proximity to neat stuff, should be a seriously bike heavy area.
The severe incidence of obesity north of Penn especially east of Washington road is also pretty troubling and I'm not honestly familiar with the situation or roads. but maybe this should be telling us something about say, Stanton, Frankstown and Lincoln.
The most reasonable approach will doubtless vary, but I think what this does is provide additional ammunition to the argument that we need to be removing barriers to active transportation in certain areas where the prospect is not taken seriously today because the agitators for this infrastructure will naturally focus most heavily on their own neck of the woods, which is generally elsewhere. For quality of life reasons, but also, yes, with all the money spent on healthcare in this country, I think it's also very easy to make the argument that almost anything that isn't exorbitant and makes some difference to public health pays for itself many times over.
Thoughts? Specific recommendations?
