KCStar story on walking, biking advocate

Today's KCStar ran a lengthy article on Dan Burden, one of the nation's leading advocates for creating bikeable, walkable communities. Excerpts:

Americans now use automobiles for more than 90 percent of their daily trips. . . .

The result of this automotive addiction: A world where children are sometimes bused 300 feet to school because they can't safely cross eight-lane suburban boulevards. Two-hour commutes on clogged highways. Quaint main streets forsaken for windowless hulks set in acres of asphalt.

"America is out of sync with its values," Burden tells 100 people who have gathered for a slide presentation in a school cafeteria. "We say we're for kids. We say we're for safety. We say we're for families. And we build this ..."

A slide comes up of a woman pushing a stroller along the shoulder of a busy road, a toddler with her walking inches from the traffic.

Children and the elderly suffer most when the automobile conquers a town, Burden says. In a car-dominated landscape, those who can't or won't drive suffer impaired mobility, recreation, health and peace of mind.

The damage can be repaired, Burden says. Our towns and cities can be refashioned into places where children bike to school and their parents walk to work, where picking up a gallon of milk doesn't have to burn a pint of gasoline.

Read the complete story on the KCStar's web site.

Visit Dan Burden's own web site, Walkable Communities, Inc..