Anyone who’s walked down Highland Road won’t be too surprised to learn that Baton Rouge was named the fourth deadliest city for pedestrians in 2018. Crossing the street is an exercise in faith.
Most American communities are built around the almighty car, and Baton Rouge is no exception. LSU offers some reprieve to the honking and traffic of the rest of the city — unless, that is, you’re trying to find a parking spot in time for your 9 a.m. class or beat the commute out at the end of the day.
While it has flaws in need of solutions, LSU is still a relatively pedestrian-friendly community. For many students, it’s the first and last walkable community they’ll ever live in.
Personally, I love that aspect of campus living. My apartment, my work, my classes and my friends are mostly all in a roughly one-mile radius of each other. I can walk to get groceries, and if I’m running late to something, all I need to do is pick up the pace.
Our communities would be healthier, happier and more equitable if we designed our cities around pedestrians, bikers and public transport instead of cars.
It’s a no-brainer that a commute that includes more walking than sitting is better for our health. But this conclusion extends beyond common sense and into real data. The Endocrine Society said that living in walkable communities that support daily activity reduces rates of diabetes and obesity. One study found that adults living in less walkable communities were 30 to 50% more likely to develop diabetes.
Cars are a scourge not only on the environment — making up a fifth of all carbon emissions and a third of all air pollution in the U.S. — but also on our health. There were around 385,000 premature deaths globally due to car exhaust in 2015 alone, according to a 2019 study from the International Council on Clean Transportation.
There are also social benefits to living in a walkable community. If you live in on-campus housing, you understand this. Most, if not all, of your friends live just a few-minute walk away. If you want to go for a late-night adventure or meet up for a study break, all you have to do is take a short journey outside your dorm.
When you live in a place centered around cars, it’s often necessary to drive farther from where you live for necessities and social activities. Many hardly interact with their neighbors, as they spend much of their time outside their immediate community. Neighborhoods centered around pedestrians naturally support closer community bonds.
It’s also important to consider the way car-centric communities further disadvantage residents without resources. Baton Rouge public transport can be limited and difficult to navigate. This makes it challenging for residents who rely on it to get groceries, visit the doctor’s office or get to work without significant time sacrifices.
Increasing investments in citywide public transport would make it easier for all residents to navigate the city and may also alleviate the heavy traffic that clogs much of Baton Rouge.
Many look back on their college years fondly. We should take city-planning notes from some of that nostalgia and think about ways we can make our cities less car-reliant and more accessible for everyone.
Claire Sullivan is a 19-year-old coastal environmental science and mass communication junior from CT.
