We’d like to share some great examples of how quality of life improves when public health workers and the urban planning and transportation offices work together and keep pedestrians and bicyclists in mind.
The American Public Health Association and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership has put together a new report (16 MB pdf) with a lot of interesting findings.
“Luckily, a small but passionate movement in the United States is happening to create healthier, more connected communities — where there are safe places to walk, bicycle and play, and public transit is within walking distance of home or work. This movement is aiming to ensure that the healthy choice is also the easiest one. …With the growing rate of obesity, the high cost of gas and climate change, we must rethink and reshape our transportation systems and networks to promote active transportation.”
Promoting Actice Transportation: An Opportunity for Public Health. Read it for inspiration on how you can influence your community to improve active transporation.
Case studies of Southern California, Columbus (OH) and Houghton (MI)
suggests what can be done in places from large metropolitan areas to small cities. Studies by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have provided statistics from four different communities. Data shows strong links between a healthy population and infrastructure decisions where improvements on active transportation was taken into considerations. (Active transportation is “any self propelled, human-powered mode of transportation, such as walking or bicycling”).
This is what the FHWA learned:
• Roughly, 16 million miles were walked or bicycled that otherwise would have been traveled by driving; bicycling increased by 36 percent and walking increased by 14 percent.
• Emissions decreased by more than 7,700 tons of CO2 ; this is equal to saving one gallon of gas per person in the four communities or 1.7 million gallons of gas overall.
• Injuries were reduced: Even with the increased rates of walking and bicycling, fatal crashes remained the same or decreased.
• The communities reduced the economic cost of mortality by $6.8 million.=
Similarly, Safe Routes to School infrastructure has been shown to increase physical activity in children by 20 to 200 percent; also, the safety benefit generates up to a 49 percent decrease in childhood bicycle and pedestrian collision rates.
Don’t we all want our children to have a better life than we had? By planning right, we can give them nicer neighborhoods, and at the same time sneak in a healthier lifestyle and a less damaged planet earth. The funflector team cheers on everyone who is working towards implementing these healthy ideas in communities around the country. We would be thrilled to learn about projects like these that you know about or have been involved in. Please tell us in the comments below!
The funflector team
