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/.
Where I live in Atlanta, is extremely active-friendly, pedestrian orientation. I have noticed an increase of physical activity in my parents because they walk everywhere these days. Right behind my house is this trail called the Atlanta Beltline and it goes all the way to Piedmont Park and my parents frequent that just about daily. We also have all sorts of restaurants and shops that are walking distance to my house. My dad will walk his work clothes down to the dry cleaners instead and getting in his car, my mom will walk to her workout class and walk home. They go on bikes rides because there are wide sidewalks as well as bike lanes down out street. I truly believe that this change has made my parents more health conscious. I believe my parents are a great example for practitioners who are seeking to improve zoning in a community that may not have efficient active-living policies in place because of the positive influence it has made on their life.
I grew up in a very rural, very low-income town with no sidewalks outside of the “city limits”. In addition to being poor and relatively undeveloped, the population was predominantly overweight and obese (still is). While the town has worked to increase the use of public areas, like new parks with activities for kids, the sidewalks themselves have not been expanded and are basically only used by the cross country team. Meanwhile, the city just 7 miles away (Carrollton, the county seat), just implemented and built a Greenbelt. It goes through the University of West Georgia and alongside the city bypass. The number of people on the paths during nice, sunny days is astounding to me. I truly hope that it becomes a refuge for everyone in my county but I do see the barrier for people in my small community. This Greenbelt is about 8 miles away, which is further than some people are willing to drive for exercise. Numerous churches in the area have taken the Greenbelt to heart and are not copying the idea and building walking trails in their back lots to help the smaller communities in the county. Maybe one day, Carroll County can beat the thought process that rural populations aren’t as physically active as urban populations.
While reading this, I immediately thought of the town I grew up in. I grew up in a relatively affluent suburb outside of NYC just about 20 minutes from the iconic George Washington Bridge. That being said, the traffic in this area is consistently thick with people traveling in and out of the city for work and pleasure. Although my town was part of this hustle and bustle, it is probably one of the best designed towns in my area as far as getting people up and moving! My town, for lack of a better term is set up like a wheel. The center of town has everything from shops, to restaurants, to food stores, and much more, with everything being very close together and extremely walkable. The main streets branch off into the rest of town for people to get to and from their house. Because of this many people walk when doing something in town. And, even if they don’t walk from their house into the center of town and choose to drive, they walk between stores and other places down town, so to me, thats a good start!!