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To Your Health ...

by Rob Sadowsky

This issue of Bike Traffic looks at the work that the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is doing to promote physical activity as part of the Healthy Streets Campaign. The rising obesity epidemic in the U.S. and in Chicagoland is alarming. There are many factors to blame; but clearly, increased activity is part of the solution..

Chicagoland Bicycle Federation began exploring active living opportunities through involvement with the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago’s Children and our Safe Routes to School program. The initiative has since grown to involve community-based health strategies and new partnerships with health clinics, neighborhood development corporations, foundations, Chicago Department of Public Health, and after school programs. These partnerships have fostered cooperative programming; friendships and leadership that we believe will promote lasting change.

Through our work in Logan Square with McAuliffe Elementary School, a focusgroup of parents is helping to guide our individualized marketing program. They told us that the threat of diseases related to inactivity – such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease – is a powerful incentive for them to encourage their children to bicycle or walk more. My own experience has shown that since beginning to ride my bicycle daily, I have gone from being a mild asthmatic with an occasional need to use an inhaler to someone who hasn’t renewed my prescription for three years.

Ride on and be healthy!

Rob Sadowsky is executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation