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Promoting Better Health
Strategies
Community Structural Environment
A community structural
environment that supports physical activity is one with
- An abundance of
accessible, well-lit, and safe sidewalks, bicycle paths, trails, and
crosswalks to facilitate walking and bicycling.
- Sports and
recreation facilities that are close to the homes of most residents,
well-maintained, and safe.
- Programs in place to
motivate community members to walk, bicycle, and use the sports and
recreation facilities.
Strategy 8:
Enable communities to develop and promote the use of safe,
well-maintained, and close-to-home sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle paths,
trails, parks, recreation facilities, and community designs featuring
mixed-use development and a connected grid of streets.
Research has found that
moderate physical activity, such as walking and bicycling, offers
substantial health benefits.6 Walking is, in many ways, an
ideal form of physical activity. It’s easy to do, requires no special
skills or equipment, can be done by the vast majority of the population
with little risk of injury, and is functional: It gets us places.
Unfortunately, young people today do not have the opportunities for
walking that previous generations had. Since the late 1940s, community and
transportation development practices have focused on increasing the
efficiency of automobile use. Sidewalks, bicycle paths, and crosswalks are
practically nonexistent in many communities developed since the 1960s.
Nearly 25% of the trips
made from home in our nation cover a distance less than one mile, but 75%
of those trips are made by automobile.15 A small increase in
the percentage of trips that are walked rather than driven could result in
significant public health benefits. Research has found that people walk
more when they live in communities that have greater housing and
population density and more street connectivity (i.e., streets lead to
other streets and stores, rather than just ending in cul-de-sacs).40
Research also shows that people are more active in neighborhoods that are
perceived as safe and that have recreational facilities nearby.41
Communities need
funding, guidelines, model programs, and ongoing technical assistance to
implement these strategies. Departments of transportation, city planning,
parks and recreation, law enforcement, public health, and education all
should collaborate in these efforts. Department of Health and Human
Services agencies can support studies that examine the effects of
community infrastructure changes on physical activity, physical fitness,
environmental quality, and social connectedness. Such studies will provide
valuable information that can be used to document the importance of having
a community infrastructure that supports physical activity.
One existing mechanism
for promoting walking, bicycling, and accessible recreation facilities is
the CDC’s Active Community Environments initiative
(Appendix
23).
This initiative has focused on helping communities to promote walking to
school (Appendix 24) and to develop close-to-home parks and recreational
facilities.
One of the major
barriers to youth participation in physical activity is a lack of access
to sports and recreation facilities.42 Increased access to
school facilities would, therefore, help facilitate increases in physical
activity among young people. School districts should work with youth
sports and recreation programs to take maximum advantage of school
facilities for the benefit of children, adolescents, and the community as
a whole.
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