Obesity is an increasing problem; according to the CDC, in 2007; 70% of US adults are considered overweight. Traffic congestion/pollution is on the rise. According to WSDOT, the average travel distance for work is 5 miles, however, 65% still commuted by car, truck or van. New urban planning initiatives (Seattle.gov + Obama) seem to offer the perfect solution: decreasing traffic and encourage healthy behaviors by promoting alternative modes of transportation. Do these alternative modes of transportation – walking, biking, and taking the bus – actually correlate to “healthy living”?

1. Does this car make me look fat? Does this car make me look fat? Alternative modes of transportation and body mass index Alternative modes of transportation and body mass index Puja Parakh Human Centered Design & Engineering University of Washington photocredit: Thinklab

2. Introduction Obesity is an increasing problem; according to the CDC, in 2007; 70% of US adults are considered overweight Traffic congestion/pollution is on the rise. According to WSDOT, the average travel distance for work is 5 miles, however, 65% still commuted by car, truck or van New urban planning initiatives (Seattle.gov + Obama) seem to offer the perfect solution: decreasing traffic andencourage healthy behaviors by promoting alternative modes of transportation. Do these alternative modes of transportation – walking, biking, and taking the bus – actually correlate to “healthy living”?

3. Hypothesis Do commuters who primarily travel using ‘alternative modes of transportation’ have a lower body mass index (BMI)? Body Mass Index BMI isn’t the perfect metric for health but the CDC reports on it as a measure of “healthy” weight and it is simple to calculate.

4. Method Online survey of Seattle residents conducted in 2010 Respondents were asked a series of questions regarding their primary method of transportation to work/school. One-way and distance traveled Frequency of each particular mode Finally, respondents were required to enter their heightand weight to determine BMI

5. Results 83 respondents 1 did not enter weight so BMI could not be calculated Two groups: primarily auto (n=46)primarily alternative modes (n=36). The difference in mean BMI is not statistically significant (p=0.8177). Therefore, based simply on the ind. samples t-test, we cannot reject the null hypothesis However, the difference in median BMI is interesting; it indicates that there may be a correlation between BMI and alternative modes of transportation.

6. Results A higher percentage of the alternative modes group has a BMI in the "healthy" range Overweight Healthy Obese The sample size of our experiment is not sufficient to determine if this moderate negative association is significant.

8. Seattle as an overall “fitter” city? (% overweight is only 63% compared to national average of 70%)

10. Questions? pujaparakh@gmail.com or puja@uw.edu