Surprise surprise: America's fattest states are thin on bicycle commuters

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The Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a new study showing that Americans are fatter than ever.
Some highlights from the executive summary: Adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and didn't fall in any states over the last year; Thirty-one states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent; And four states have surpassed the 30 percent obese mark.
Overall, Mississippi, Alabama, and West Virginia take the prize for being America's fattest states. Thirty-two point five percent, 31.2 percent and 31.1 percent of their populations are obese respectively. The situation was even worse among children. Nearly 45 percent of Mississippi children now qualify as obese.
Unsurprisingly, the nation's fattest states also scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the percentage of the population who manage to commute to work by bicycle. A mere 0.1 percent of Mississippians and Alabamans bicycle commute. In West Virginia, 0.2 percent do. In contrast, 1.7 percent of people from Oregon (the state with the highest bicycle commuting rate) do and 0.5 percent of people from Massachusetts do (the most fit state).
Whether genetics, religion, low incomes or something else explains the corpulent performance of the three Southern states one thing is abundantly clear: politicians in those three states have done little to make their states bicycle friendly. Both Alabama and West Virginia have held the dubious distinction of being ranked America's least bicycle friendly state in the last two years by the League of American Cyclists. Mississippi, which in past years has been in the bottom three as well, jumped a surprising 23 places this year to end up 24th overall.

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