I think that John R has a good point about urban/neighborhood planning. Of course, it might be difficult to retrofit existing, ‘non-friendly to walking’ developments but if we start now with building sidewalks and not giving sidewalk waivers to the developers, the future will be better. It is not safe to walk in the streets but some places, that only is available. Another problem in Arkansas is the lack of neighborhood stores, thus requiring us to drive or ride a bus to reach them rather than walking to them.

All good points. Too bad sidewalks don’t score political points. It’s the little things that collectively make a big difference.

It sounds like an enormous challenge that would require multiple sectors. One thing I have noticed: there are NO fat people on my campus. Social stigma probably plays a role, as well as what types of people self-select here.

A Wal-Mart Community Center that rewards walking? What would that entail? Wal-Mart provides higher discounts for people who exercise more? And what incentive would Wal-Mart have for doing this? Demographically speaking, Wal-Mart shoppers are probably disproportionately low-income, and low income people tend have higher rates of obesity. An initiative like that might rub the wrong way with customers. Or not. I don’t know. That doesn’t even brush the issue of measuring how much people walk, nor the fact that most Wal-Marts are in huge sprawling complexes that deter walking and encourage driving.

It sounds like a government program would need to give incentives to the businesses in the first place to initiate such a plan.

It seems to me that better urban/neighborhood planning would play the largest role. The cities where people walk more are those that are more crowded/have few places to park, though a culture of fitness and youth probably plays are large role too. There are very few walkable places in AR. No sidewalk in my neighborhood. It’s actually pretty awful, especially if you’re trying to attract young professionals to the state.