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"I walked in mud and muck to get here because Midcounty Highway doesn't have sidewalks," said Kathi Carey-Fletcher, 53. "I ended up walking against traffic in the turn lane. It's deplorable."

Linda Koulakjian said she hasn't tried to walk in her town house community since the minivan incident a few years ago. Instead, she lost 20 pounds by sticking to the Weight Watchers diet and walking around the office building where she works as a financial planner.

"Here, you feel stupid walking. People will think you're a homeless person," Koulakjian said. "In addition to the way the houses are laid out, there's an entire feeling about what is acceptable."

Another woman said the easy suburban lifestyle and abundance of food caused everyone in her family to "turn into a giant" when they moved to the Washington area 23 years ago from Iran. Emma Megerditchian has since lost 40 pounds, in part by taking the stairs instead of elevators and running errands on foot.

"Some people think that's a big effort. But in this country, everything has become so easy and convenient," said Megerditchian, 44, a clinical assistant in a doctor's office. "I love this country. Since I was 13, I wanted to come here. But drive-through cleaners? Drive-through post-office? During the day when it's nice, go get some fresh air."

There is scientific evidence to support the notion that people who live in suburban communities such as those around Gaithersburg are less likely to walk or bike than people who live in traditional, prewar communities, where gridlike streets support a mix of homes, stores and businesses.

The suburban model is generally defined by highly segregated land uses: Homes are built on curvy, dead-end streets that feed into high-volume roadways leading to separate retail areas, typically malls fronted by parking. Walking is not only unpleasant, it's often dangerous.

In 1994, a San Francisco study found that residents of traditional communities make 16 percent of their journeys on foot or by bike, compared with 10 percent in suburban communities.

More surprising, an examination of transportation data in Seattle found that a person's activity level can be affected by the year his or her home was built. For example, people living in communities developed before 1947 traveled on foot or by bike more than three times every two days. People living in areas developed after 1977 got out of the car barely once.

The same study found that people in older neighborhoods traveled less than four miles, on average, to reach a park or other recreation area. In the newest communities, people had to drive more than eight miles to find a place to relax.

According to Lawrence D. Frank, a transportation professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who assembled the Seattle data, some new subdivisions are trying to remedy the problem by providing recreation trails.

"The problem is, people aren't using them because they don't take you somewhere you need to go," Frank said. "The conclusion is that it must be convenient for people to be moderately active."

Frank hopes to explore that theory with his latest study, a $4 million project to begin in March with the CDC that will examine the travel habits of 8,000 households in two Atlanta neighborhoods.

One is a high-density urban area with limited parking and plenty of stores, comparable to Georgetown, Frank said. The other is characterized by single-family homes on small lots – much like Tysons Corner, he said – where "there is potential for people to walk but the design may be wrong."

Most participants will keep a trip diary. But 800 will be outfitted with global-positioning devices "so we'll be able to tell if you cross the road for shade. Or because there are more shops. Or because there's something to avoid, like the sidewalk stops," Frank said.

Ultimately, the goal is to establish a clear link between neighborhood characteristics and obesity. If that link is made, the research could be used to prod policymakers to encourage healthy neighborhood design, much as Maryland and some other states are trying to do through smart-growth initiatives.

In the meantime, the CDC has seen some "tantalizing signs that changing the environment will change behavior," said Dr. William H. Dietz, director of the CDC's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Last year, in the CDC's Rhodes Building in Atlanta, researchers spruced up stairwells and put up motivational posters stressing the benefits of exercise. By study's end, Dietz said, 14 percent more CDC employees were taking the stairs.

                                     © 2001 The Washington Post