Mark Fenton

Although the cardiovascular risk reduction benefits of regular physical activity are well documented, fewer than 25% of Americans actually meet the Surgeon General's 30-minute per day recommendation. Attempts at improving population-level structured or leisure-time physical activity have had little or no success, suggesting that efforts must be made to increase lifestyle, or routine daily activity levels. Since nearly 25% of all trips from the average household are less than one-mile, increasing routine bicycling and walking shows great promise. But evidence from Europe and promising U.S. efforts suggest that providing safe, inviting facilities and supportive policies is critical to increasing routine bicycle and pedestrian trips.

Public health professionals bring a unique authority and organizing capacity to the effort to create the sidewalks and trails, conducive land use policies and other needed elements. They can provide a vision of active settings, can build capacity for change by partnering with other groups working with parallel goals (reducing traffic congestion and environmental impacts, improving public safety and local commerce, and enhancing community quality), and they can stimulate local ownership of solutions. Activities to build the vision and increase local ownership include sharing successful examples from around the country, utilizing walkability checklists, and setting up Walk a Child to School Day events11 and permanent walking school buses. Partnerships with the capacity for change must include bicycle and pedestrian advocates, trail and greenway experts, transportation and planning professionals, open space managers, education, safety, emergency response, public works and elected officials, and most important of all, a broad mix of local residents.