fyi - full text of ABC Health Matters "The Pulse" column. 😉
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Are our cities killing us?
http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/s1773114.htm
by Peter Lavelle. Published 26/10/2006
It all began about ten thousand years ago. People figured out that you could cultivate grains rather than forage for them, and breed cattle, goats and pigs, rather than go hunting for them. It made food supplies reliable – and you could always be sure of what the men were actually doing. You could stay in one place, build a roof over your head, and call it your own.
Villages sprang up, they became towns, and finally, cities.
Ten thousand years on, cities are about to become the dominant habitat on the planet. The United Nations has estimated that in 2007, for the first time in human history, more people on planet Earth will live in cities than rural areas.
In Australia, we're already well ahead – 90 per cent of us live in cities, making us amongst the most urbanised countries in the world.
In recent years there's been a growing chorus of health authorities who argue there needs to be more thought given to how our cities are developing.
Historically, people lived close together in cities criss-crossed with streets, which people travelled by foot, along which horses, carriages, later trams and then trains, travelled.
But after the Second World War came the explosion in automobile ownership, and with it, the growth of suburbs at much greater distances from the city centre where access to services – shops, schools, parks, sporting facilities – required transport by car.
Car travel defines our cities – suburbs are designed with the car in mind, not the pedestrian. Walking is inconvenient, even dangerous.
Unhealthy car culture
This reliance on cars is affecting the health of urban dwellers.
People who live in sprawling suburbs tend to walk less and weigh more than people in more densely populated areas – about 2.7 kilograms more on average per person, according to a recent study from the National Centre for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland in the US. This puts them at a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke.
Another problem is the air pollution caused by cars which affects not only people living in sprawling suburbs, but all city inhabitants.
Air pollution – particles and gases from car exhaust emissions – are responsible for more deaths than road accidents. They shorten the lives of urban dwellers by one to two years, causing heart disease, stroke, respiratory diseases like asthma and bronchitis and possibly cancer. In Australia, the health cost is estimated at between A$3 billion and A$5.3 billion every year, according to the CSIRO.
A CSIRO study titled Reshaping Cities for a More Sustainable Future predicts that if Australia’s cities continue to grow as urban sprawl, in just 10 to 15 years air pollution in our cities will increase as much as 70 per cent compared to 1990 levels.
Sprawling outer suburbs have other health downsides.
They encroach on water catchment areas, reducing the quality of water supplies. They tend to displace agricultural land like market gardens supplying the cities, making fresh food more expensive. And they eat into recreational spaces like parks and bushland.
Injuries from motor vehicle accidents are more likely in suburbs where the car is the main means of transport.
Far-flung suburbs mean more commuting time, which means less time spent with family and friends, less leisure. They mean more road rage and stress, both of which have been linked to higher death rates.
Trend towards higher density
So the trend is for state governments and councils to encourage medium density in existing suburbs; to build more dwellings on land already built on. This means dividing up larger blocks and encouraging town houses, row houses, apartments, and units rather than release more land for free-standing houses on large blocks on the peripheries of cities.
The NSW State Government in its plan City of Cities: A Plan for Sydney’s Future says that only 30 per cent of new homes will be built in new suburbs over the next 30 years. The rest will be in existing suburbs. In Melbourne, 70 per cent of its new housing up to 2032 will be in existing suburbs, according to the Victorian State Government's metropolitan policy Melbourne 2030.
Not everyone agrees with this approach. The Institute of Public Affairs, a right wing think tank, believes the market should dictate housing growth.
The rights of the individual to live how and where they want should take precedence over town planning. Forcing people to use public transport infringes on the individual's rights and people won't use it anyway. Ninety per cent of people have access to a car and prefer cars to public transport, writes the Institute's Alan Moran in his book The tragedy of planning: losing the great Australian dream.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA), which represents builders and developers, also argues for easing restrictions on the release of new land on the outskirts of cities, and for a reduction on levies extracted from developers to pay for sewerage systems, roads, parks, schools, and other infrastructure.
Reducing the amount of land available for housing on city fringes drives up land prices says the HIA. It robs Australians of their chance at the Australian dream – to own their own home. It sets up a underclass of renters who don’t own a home as an asset condemning them to live in poverty after retirement.
New housing in new suburbs gives people a better lifestyle and more living space, argues the HIA. It's an affordable alternative to overcrowded urban areas that, in their worst manifestation, have become high-rise ghettos with high rates of depression and social alienation.
Better design is the key
But the issue isn’t so much whether housing should be built in new or existing suburbs, but whether or not there are good enough services and facilities within these developments, argue two city planning experts: Howard Frumkin, director of the US National Center for Environmental Health; and Professor Anthony Capon, visiting fellow with the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University.
Planning should take preference over land prices and the needs of developers, because good planning improves the health of a city's inhabitants, they told audiences in a recent series of lectures in Sydney.
Both inner city high density and outer suburban sprawl are unhealthy if they're not well designed and planned, they said. What's needed is the approach known as 'smart growth', also called 'new urbanism', which is basically rediscovery of principles known to traditional town and city designers.
It involves a move towards medium density in existing suburbs – it reduces transport time, improves social contact amongst inhabitants, and the infrastructure is already there so it's cheaper.
But it needs to be balanced by facilities that compensate for higher density; green areas like parks and activity centres – recreational and sporting facilities and clubs.
There should be a mix of different types of housing – private and public, housing for aged people, and a mix of residential and commercial dwellings in the same area.
And there should be more footpaths and cycleways, and more mass transit – trains, trams, trolleys, and people movers, as an alternative to cars.
To counter the preference for cars, there should be public health campaigns encouraging people to walk and cycle or use mass transit rather than cars, they said.
These measures take into account the effects of rising petrol prices, the ageing of the population, and scarcity of land, all of which are going to become more pronounced in the years ahead. It makes for more attractive cities, and safer, healthier communities.
They say it’s not a case of town planners’ wishes taking precedent over developers, or vice versa. It’s about developers working together in partnership with planners, and also with architects, banks, transport engineers, environmentalists and health workers, to make it happen.
And there's a message in all of this for home buyers and renters. If you want to enjoy a longer life with less chance of a chronic illness aim to live in an area with these facilities if you can.