Sometimes a chart doesn’t need any explanation. This one – on obesity and active transportation – comes from Todd Litman.
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Great chart – could you provide a link to the VTPI article?
I dunno – to me the correlation seems to be more in the English speaking countries
Interesting correlation, but you can do the same plotting the cost of postage stamps or something against obesity rates.
The quality and amount of, as well as the manner in which people eat their food is more important than how they get around here. Not to mention physical activity in general…
I think to compare this to postage stamps is to triviailize the importance of transportation in fitness. People who have longer commutes by car tend to weigh more than those who walk to work, for obvious reasons. This has been shown within individual cities to be true, and would make sense on a national scale as well. People are more likely to get their daily exercise if it’s part of their regular commutes or trips to the store than if they have to buy a gym membership.
But Greg is right that this is one factor, and if you plotted this data on an x-y graph (like it should be, really) i doubt the correlation would be too strong, but it would be there, and for a good reason.
Hm. More Americans walk than Canadians. Does that mean walking causes obesity?
I think diet is more important – American fast food culture (Canada only a bit better) but Vancouver is pretty healthy. I spend part of the year in LA and part in Vancouver, far fewer obese people in Vancouver than “beautiful” LA.