Working for an international firm, I travel outside our country several times a month.

This last year, I have been spending a lot of time in Japan. I am always impressed by Tokyo and its orderly traffic patterns, and thousands of bicyclers who travel throughout the city on the sidewalks with the pedestrians.

You hardly ever see an overweight Japanese person, but you do, see everywhere, thousands of bikes and thousands of very fit people.

Japan has a much lower rate of cardio-vascular disease than we do, much less cancer, and with all their congestion -- they seem to be able to deal with stress much better than we do.

Do you think it is from the extra exercise?

Scientific study after scientific study has informed us that regular exercise does prevent many of the terribly expensive diseases our society is experiencing.

Anyone (and I hear the tea party members do) who believes it is not worth our investment dollars to have bike paths and sidewalks must be living in the dark ages.

My family and I are for anything the Town Council can do to increase our sidewalks, our bike paths, our community.

All of us who live in Fountain Hills have seen a tremendous increase in walkers and bikers this last year. It is wonderful to see, and from what I have read, the trend is growing.

The investment in our community’s health will and does pay off in more ways than this simple letter can convey.

Let’s have more healthy ways for our neighborhoods to get out and enjoy our wonderful town.