WEEKEND MEMOS

'Weekend memos' give our editorial writers a chance to express their own opinions, comment on topics they have been writing about, or take a lighter approach. The opinions in 'Memos' do not always follow the Enquirer's editorial positions.

I'm sure Segway-developer Dean Kamen is an inventive genius, but his two-wheel, battery-powered "human transporter" runs directly counter to public health warnings that we are eating and driving ourselves into a national obesity epidemic.

To operate Kamen's $5,000 Segways, you do have to exert yourself a bit by standing up, and he means well in trying to offer a less polluting, low-cost alternative to the automobile in center cities. One Cincinnati law firm bought a Segway for a law clerk to file cases at the courthouse. But most people already come equipped with an alternative transporter for short urban trips. It's called walking.

Kamen dreams of filling sidewalks with swarms of pedestrians on Segways. Only an American would invent a fun device to replace walking.

In Italy a few weeks ago I was struck again by how much slimmer most people look there than people here, and you could get that same impression in other old, densely populated European cities. Because many there still walk everywhere - up stairs, down narrow alleyways, cross town, every day, all their lives.

Not that diet doesn't matter. Obesity is a global health issue. World Health Organization officials met June 17 in Geneva with global food industry heavyweights to develop strategies to curb unhealthy foods.

Last week, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control blamed suburban sprawl for America's obesity epidemic. In a study of 12,000 Atlantans, researchers Lawrence Frank and Richard Jackson found fewer overweight or obese people in dense neighborhoods than in sprawling suburbs where people use cars to go anywhere. They presented their findings to architects and city planners at the annual Congress for the New Urbanism, a group urging that new development be made more compact and walkable.

The Tristate, with 60 percent overweight or obese, easily out-hulks the national average of 48 percent. Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine is co-sponsoring a bill to award grants to communities that promote exercise and obesity prevention. We could start by agreeing walkable cities need not mean "as little walking as possible."

Tony Lang