In a webinar presented by a policy and health researcher named Dr. Jamie Chriqui, the focus is on research she has conducted on the role of zoning and its relationship with adult activity. She discusses designing communities to be more active-friendly, especially for pedestrian orientation. This means more biking and walking accessibility in the environment such as more sidewalks and safer conditions for these activities. She also discusses how zoning is related to public health through zoning laws. These laws can include improving communities to increase active living through the implementation of sidewalks, bike lanes and parking, and street connectivity to just name a few. She also mentions The Community Guide’s recommendations for environmental and policy approaches to increase physical activity that focus on design techniques for different strategies such as safe street crossings, reducing car use, and facilitating walking and biking.
In her research examining the prevalence of active-living zoning across the United States, her research team found that it is stronger in urban areas and weaker in non-urban areas, and low-income areas have weaker zoning compared to higher income areas. These results were not that surprising considering there is a higher need for safety on streets and sidewalks in urban areas with more traffic. Overall, her findings show that active living-oriented zoning measures are significantly associated with increased walking, biking, and taking any active transportation to work. It is important to note that these are correlations and not causations, but it shows that these policies do have the potential to be successful.
This information is beneficial for practitioners that are seeking to improve zoning in a community that may not have efficient active-living policies in place. Practitioners can be the bridge connecting the community leaders to the people of the community by working with leaders on the planning and designing of these policies. This is also useful for promoting active living in a community by not only incorporating active-living into zoning policies, but to also encourage individuals to walk or bike to their destination once developments have been made. Sidewalks and safety developments can be successful, but individuals must be aware of them and encouraged to use them. For additional information on active living oriented zoning, check out the National Complete Streets Coalition’s website: https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/national-complete-streets-coalition/.