ABSTRACT
The second Domain of Wellbeing is physical activity. The link between built environments and physical activity has been a key interest for professionals and academics in Australia and around the world, inspiring a swathe of guidelines, checklists, interventions and journal articles. In Chapter 4, we concentrate on one crucial message: To be healthy, a human body needs to be active, yet our environments have evolved to minimise the amount of physical effort needed to live a modern life. We proceed to explore some of the things that prevent Australians from being physically active and tackle the complex concept of individual motivation. We highlight the way urban planning is implicated in elements of motivation, starting with the basic need for all Australians to have adequate access to quality open spaces and progressing to more multifaceted notions, such as time availability, self-confidence and perceptions of safety.
