WTF? Higher gas prices sure aren't going to make fat people thinner by making them walk or bicycle or take mass transit. What does it take for these people to get it? Eating less and exercising more is not necessarily going to make anyone lose their fat (walking more might make them more fit but it ain't gonna make them thinner). And what about people who live where there is no mass transit? Should they have to bicycle or walk however far they have to to get to work (when I worked, I had a 50-mile trip, one way, every day and no way to get there unless I drove, and no one to carpool with).
Could it be that the 13% rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 is not from falling gas prices but from the downward adjustment in the BMI ranges that was done in the late 90's? How many people became overweight or obese overnight, without gaining a pound? And I'm sorry, gasoline prices have not been falling in that time period. I can remember when gas was $.69 a gallon in 1976, and it's been going up ever since. I can't remember a time in the last 10 years when gas was below a $1.00 a gallon.
"I was pumping gas one day, thinking with gas prices so high I may have to take the Metro," he said, referring to the public transportation system serving the St. Louis area.
Courtemanche said he figured he would get an extra 30 minutes of exercise per day by walking to and from the Metro station.
This is all well and good if you live within walking distance of mass transit and that mass transit drops you off within walking distance of your work. Also works fine if you don't have to drop kids off at daycare or school on your way to work, or pick them up on the way home. I think Courtemanche's doctoral dissertation in health economics leaves a little bit to be desired in the way that it relates to the reality of life for most people.
I'm car free by choice, because I believe it's better for the environment. I also limit the meat I consume for the same reason, though am not totally vegetarian. I take my bicycle most places, supplemented by public transit and walking. I designed my lifestyle around this choice. For instance, we moved to be closer to the train station. DH took a job accessible by train rather than out in the 'burbs.
ReplyDeleteIt bugs the bejesus out of me when people (especially the bikers who I should, theoretically have a lot in common with) go on and on about how if fat, lazy Americans only got off up their duff and cycled everywhere, they wouldn't be fat. It's such bs. I cycle everywhere. I'm still fat. The thirty or so extra minutes of biking I do a day hasn't caused me to lose an ounce.