Thin population: urban sprawl and obesity.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Urban sprawls and obesity research - Brief article

IT WAS BAD enough when urban sprawl was charged with destroying community and turning us into selfish bastards. Lately it's been blamed for bloating our waistlines, turning us into fat selfish bastards. Sprawl critics claim geographical spread leads to bodily spread by encouraging people to drive rather than walk or bike.

But a recent study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago casts doubt on that theory. A team led by Siim Soot, director emeritus of the university's Urban Transportation Center, used the heights and weights reported on driver's licenses and state ID cards to calculate the body mass indexes (BMIs) of 7 million northeastern Illinois residents, then analyzed the relationship between BMIs and the demographic characteristics of 300 ZIP codes. "There is scant evidence that obesity is directly associated with urban sprawl," they concluded. In fact, Chicago's inner suburbs had the lowest BMIs.

Soot and his colleagues did confirm...