Planning a WALKABLE COMMUNITY

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Planning a WALKABLE COMMUNITY
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Thanks to National Center for Bicycling and
Walkingwww.bikewalk.organdActive Living By
Design, RWJFwww.activelivingbydesign.org

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Workshop Objectives

• Recognize health and environment connections
• Create vision of a Walkable Community
• Develop a Plan of Action

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Walk and Rolland everything in between

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How did you get to school as a kid?
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How do your kids or grandkids get to school?
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What has changed?
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How did we get here?

• Weve designed communities around cars and the
  trips we make in them.
• Weve created barriers to walking and biking, and
  thus to physical activity.
• Weve used most of our transportation funding to
  support motor vehicle infrastructure.

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An example of how travel designed around the
automobile creates barriers for pedestrians and
cyclists Can you spot the pedestrian? Just
follow the arrow.
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Whats it like to walk in America today? Barriers
for pedestrians and cyclists are everywhere.
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Its not that people necessarily set out to plan
barriers to physical activity. Sometimes it just
seems like it
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Environment Affects Health

• New study found
• Residents in Walkable Communities more likely to
  get enough activity.
• 38 in most walkable communities met activity
  recommendations
• 18 in least walkable communities met activity
  recommendations
• American Journal of Preventive Medicine, February
  2005

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If you are inactive, you have a higher risk of

• Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, and Stroke
• Type 2 Diabetes
• Colon Cancer
• Osteoporosis
• Depression and Anxiety
• Breast Cancer
• Falls among the elderly

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The Obesity Epidemic Overweight is BMI
25.0-29.9Obese is BMI gt 30.0

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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1994
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1995
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1996
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1997
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1998
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1999
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2000
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 20
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2001
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
24
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2002
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
25
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2003
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
Source CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System.
26
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2004
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 25
Source Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System, CDC.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2005
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
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Source Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System, CDC.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2006
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
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Source Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System, CDC.
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2007
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
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Source Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System, CDC.
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American children are becoming more overweight

• The percentage of overweight children, aged2-5
  years and 12-19 years, has doubled in last three
  decades
• The percentage of overweight children, aged6-11
  years, has tripled in last three decades
• Preventing Childhood Obesity, Institute of
  Medicine, 2004

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Health Care Costs of Obesity in Minnesota

• An estimated 1.3 billion yearly to treat
  obesity in Minnesota.
• State Level Estimates of Annual Medical
  Expenditures Attributable to Obesity Obesity
  Research, Eric A. Finkelstein, Ian C. Fiebelkorn,
  and Guijing Wang January 23, 2004 12 18-24

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Physical Activity Recommendations

• Adults
• At least 30 minutes a day of moderate activity at
  least 5 days a week
• Children
• At least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous
  activity daily

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Minnesota Adults

• 51 report not meeting recommendation for weekly
  physical activity
• Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 2007
• 17 report no physical activity
• Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 2007

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Health Care Costs of Physical Inactivity in
Minnesota

• An estimated 495 million was spent in the Year
  2000 treating diseases and conditions that would
  be avoided if all Minnesotans met activity
  recommendation.
• Minnesota Department of Health, 2002

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Minnesota Children Moderate Physical
ActivityMN Student Survey, 2007
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Other costs if community is not walkable

• Costs of operating a car
• Purchase price, finance fees
• Gas, oil, maintenance
• Insurance, crash costs (specific and general)
• Parking (fees, land, construction, loss of tax
  base)
• Road building and maintenance, pollution, noise,
  land use

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Added benefits if community is walkable

• Tourism accessible to more visitors
• Real estate values proximity to paths and
  trails is an amenity
• Retirees preference for walkability and reduced
  dependence on driving

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What about safety?

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of
  injury death in the United States.
• About 13 percent of all traffic fatalities are
  pedestrians or cyclists, although less than 6
  percent of all trips are made by foot or bicycle.
• We worry about our children being abducted on
  their way to school, when the real dangers are in
  crossing the street.

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What about social equity?

• 22 of Minnesota residents are under 14 years of
  age
• 12 of Minnesota residents are 65 and older
• Reference U.S. Census, 2000

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Thank goodness shes wearing running shoes.
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Efforts to create Walkable Communities are not
Anti-Car

• They are Pro-Transportation Choice
• Giving people transportation options, for the
  variety of reasons outlined.

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What is a Walkable Community?
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Walkability includes

• Safe and accessible facilities
• Reasonable walking distances
• Connections to destinations

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Safe and Accessible Facilities

• Safe crossings
• Buffering from traffic
• Street-oriented buildings (facing street, close
  to street, multiple windows and doors)
• Comfortable and safe places to wait

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Two Ramps Per Corner
Eight Ramps Per Intersection
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Keeping up with maintenance?
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Reasonable Walking Distances

• For most walking trips, a reasonable distance is
  less than 2 miles.
• Most people walk 1 mile in about 15-20 minutes.
• One mile equals about 2,000 steps.

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Connections to Destinations

• Single destinations or a mixed-use combination
  of the following
• Homes, residential areas
• Workplaces
• Schools
• Shopping, food and entertainment, recreation
• Social engagements . . . . Etc.

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Pedestrian path at the end of a cul-de-sac
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Walkable Communities strategies

• Provide financial incentives to encourage people
  to live near where they work
• Zone areas by building type, not use
• Convert declining malls and streets into
  mixed-use developments
• Encourage developers to reduce off-street surface
  parking

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Walkable Communities strategies (continued)

• Connect walkways, parking lots, greenways,
  developments
• Adopt siting and funding criteria to preserve
  neighborhood schools
• Encourage adaptive reuse of historic or
  architecturally significant buildings

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Walkable Communities strategies (continued)

• Define communities and neighborhoods with visual
  cues
• Facilitate open space acquisition and development
• Conduct walkability audits including a review
  of ordinances, codes, regulations

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Connectivity for kids
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Walkable Schools strategies

• Two crossing guards for wide streets
• Speed enforcement at schools
• Paint SCHOOL on each high speed approach to a
  school crossing
• Paint stand back lines on sidewalks to show
  children where to stand while waiting

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Walkable Schools strategies (continued)

• Develop Safest Route to School walking plans
  for parents and students
• Adopt zero tolerance speed enforcement at school
  zones
• Provide school crossing guards with brighter
  fluorescent yellow-green vests with more
  reflective material and hats

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Walkable Schools strategies (continued)

• Walking and bicycling safety education curricula
  in school
• Prevent new elementary schools from being built
  on major streets
• Walking School Bus and school pools (versus
  carpools)

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Examples of Walkable Communities Strategies
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Improved Crossings
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Median, or crossing islands.
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Reclaiming Dead Street Space for Walking
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Traffic Calming

• Vertical engineering speed bumps, humps, and
  tables.

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Traffic Calming Horizontal engineering
Chicane creates a diversion or change in
direction
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Traffic calming

• Horizontal engineering
• Deflect the cars, narrow the corridor.

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Traffic calming
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Traffic calming
Narrow corridors, real and perceived, slow
traffic.
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Road Diets Reduce 4 lanes . . .
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. . . to 2 lanes plus a median or turning lane,
leaving room for bike lanes and wider sidewalks.
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Make things interesting!

• Slows traffic speeds
• Makes walking routes interesting
• Creates community identity

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Our visions may take our places well beyond where
they currently exist!
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The changes may be dramatic, transforming entire
downtown areas once hostile to bicyclists and
pedestrians
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Planning a WALKABLE COMMUNITY
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Presented by

• Co-facilitators names and contact information . .
  . .