Are there any studies that show that walkability improves mental health?
Not living in the suburbs improves mental health.
Not if you are living in a noisy and polluted location, which is the case for most people without a car, clichees aside.
Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
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Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#22Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Humans crave walkable neighborhoods. American and Canadian infrastructure is the main reason we have so many mental health problems.
I buy the value of walkable neighborhoods, but it's hard to make this epidemiological claim hold up; Canada and the US have broadly similar infrastructure but sharply different rates of mental illness; similarly, mental illness rates don't appear to track walkability in Europe.
Walkability is good for physical health. Walking is a light exercise. Physical health improves mental health. But I'm not sure if walkability directly improves mental health.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#23I am glad there is a growing enthusiasm for walkable cities in the US. It's something I've become very passionate about lately.
For those that are interested in learning more about the topic, I highly highly recommend the City Nerd youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@CityNerd.
I find a lot of arguments for for walkability tend to be emotional or needlessly hostile towards car owners. City Nerd takes a much more analytical approach and shares the data he uses for his videos, I think that's something most of HackerNews can appreciate.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#24Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Humans crave walkable neighborhoods. American and Canadian infrastructure is the main reason we have so many mental health problems.
I buy the value of walkable neighborhoods, but it's hard to make this epidemiological claim hold up; Canada and the US have broadly similar infrastructure but sharply different rates of mental illness; similarly, mental illness rates don't appear to track walkability in Europe.
Canada also has free healthcare. There are an infinite number of cultural differences that could affect the mental health rates in EU/CA more positively than in the US.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#25Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Humans crave walkable neighborhoods. American and Canadian infrastructure is the main reason we have so many mental health problems.
>Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Probably because you're on vacation? Why is there nothing that walkable city enthusiasts will claim walkable cities won't fix?
Right. I also feel good on road trips.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#26Your mileage may vary, literally, but I walk 1-2 hours everyday and am 10/10 on self-assessed happiness and mental health.
I'm happy with jogging and walking every day, especially because I can reap the mental health benefits that better physical health brings.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#27I am fully on-board with walkable cities, it's something I feel very strongly about. This link, however, is not to an article supporting the lofty claim of the title (currently "Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health"), but rather to a shop where you can buy red Trump-style "Make America Walkable Again" hats.... for what end exactly? Not clear. The site is collecting donations, but they don't say what they plan to do with them. All of this smells very fishy. (As an aside, I'd guess the number of US residents who support walkable cities AND who are willing to wear a hat that is designed to be mistaken at first glance for one supporting the former president is very small.)
If you're interested in a more informative discussion of city design and its effect on lived experience, I recommend Not Just Bikes [1].
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#28IMHO we're going to look back historically at single-family-detached-suburban-sprawl as not just the fulcrum in destroying the environment, but also actively harmful to the people that live there, especially children. Its easy for it to feel "normal" or even aspirational to us now, but its basically only ~3 generations old, and the first generation raised in suburbs was usually larger families in closer-in suburbs, p…
I hope we exist long enough to look back at it and see what harm it has done. As it stands, I'm pretty sure most of us will be dead and so will most life on the planet.
Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#29Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health
#30Are there any studies that show that walkability improves mental health?
Here's a meta analysis[1] from 2012 showing that walking has a strong positive effect on depression. Here's one showing that biking and walking for commuting were associated with improved physical/mental health[2]. Here's a newer study showing benefits to the elderly from walking in urban green spaces[3].
Seems like a well supported idea.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S17552...
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01604...
[3] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.5759...