Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Public Health

Americans Growing Too Large for Their Cars

By Brad Aaron | | 9 Comments
The Cadillac XLR two-seater has a weight capacity of 362 pounds. Irony of ironies. It sounds like a plot line from "The Simpsons" — and, the fates willing, someday will be — but it seems Americans are growing too obese to be transported safely by many car models. USA Today has the skinny: The growing […]

A Gehl Dispatch From Down Under

By Brad Aaron | | 2 Comments
We reported yesterday that noted Danish urbanist Jan Gehl will soon be surveying New York streets with an eye toward improving them for human use. Gehl has been working in Sydney, Australia as of late, and an essay he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald offers insight into what he may be looking for here in […]

World Cities Adding One Million People Every Week

By Jason Varone | | 2 Comments
Syndicated columnist Neal Peirce asks whether our planet will be able to absorb the population "mega-surge" currently underway in Africa, Asia and Latin America. From Common Dreams: The problem is that the global population base has increased so radically that even seemingly modest birthrates can have momentous consequences. Joel Cohen (head of the Laboratory of […]

Parallel Parking for Sociopaths

By Brad Aaron | | 10 Comments
Telecommunications giant Sprint recently launched an ad campaign called "Waitless," the gist of which seems to be that one of its plans allows customers unlimited calling two hours earlier than other companies do, thereby saving "four years of waiting over a lifetime." To illustrate the point, sort of, Sprint has a series of short spots depicting […]

Japanese Automakers Settle Pollution Suit

By Jason Varone | | No Comments
Companies have been routinely penalized for deceptive behavior regarding the safety of products like lead, asbestos and tobacco. The Japan Times reports on the latest public health menace to be challenged in courtrooms: The Tokyo High Court proposed Friday that seven automakers pay 1.2 billion yen to hundreds of asthma patients to settle a decade-long […]

Safety City: Where Cars Rule!

By Brad Aaron | | 15 Comments
As part of our back to school coverage, and in light of news from the past week, we thought it would be a good time to report on programs aimed at keeping kids safe on city streets. In addition to its ever-so-slowly evolving Safe Routes to School effort (three years in, improvements are soon expected […]
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