Strategies for Physical Activity Through Community Design

Key points

  • Being physically active is one of the most important ways that people can improve their health now and into the future.
  • Physical activity benefits people of all ages and abilities.
  • To increase physical activity, state and local organizations can support strategies to improve community design.
Gold bar with circle in the middle. Drawing of physical activity items in the circle.

Background

Family of five walking on sidewalk in front of houses.
Safe places to walk are important community design elements.

Engaging in physical activity is one of the best things people of all ages can do to improve their health. Physical activity is vital for healthy aging, can reduce chronic diseases, and prevent early death. Yet, only about 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 6 high school students fully meet the recommendations in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Activity-friendly communities are places with destinations such as parks, schools, and shops that are attractive and accessible to the community. Activity-friendly communities include welcoming, safe, and convenient places to play, walk, roll and bike to enjoy destinations that the community has to offer. Transit can help make these places more accessible. In other words, these types of communities are designed to connect activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations.

Communities designed to be activity friendly can thrive by supporting economic development, revitalization, social connection, aging in place, and investments that will last for generations. In short, activity-friendly communities can contribute to economic improvements and social well-being.

Many people from rural and low-income areas lack access to places to be active. People with limited access to places that support being active—such as sidewalks, trails, and parks—are also less likely to meet the physical activity recommendations.

Connect activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations

Activity-friendly communities include welcoming, safe, and convenient places to play, walk, roll and bike to enjoy destinations the community has to offer. To align with the Community Preventive Services Task Force's built environment recommendation, where applicable, activity-friendly communities need to include at least one element from activity-friendly routes plus one element from everyday destinations. Possibilities for each are listed below.

Activity-Friendly Routes Everyday Destinations
These may include new or improved:
  • Street pattern design and connectivity, such as convenient, connected, and accessible streets that create many route options, shorter block lengths, and shorter crossing distances.
  • Pedestrian infrastructure, such as sidewalk networks that can include trails, traffic calming, intersection safety, street lighting, benches, public bathrooms, shade, and landscaping.
  • Bicycle infrastructure, such as bicycle networks that can include slow/safe streets, protected bikeways, trails, traffic calming, intersection safety, street lighting, public bathrooms, shade, and landscaping.
  • Public transit infrastructure and access, such as transit networks that include expanded services, times, and locations and public bathrooms that are safe and easy to access.
 Plus symbol These may include increased:
  • Proximity to community or neighborhood destinations, such as homes, worksites, schools, parks, grocery stores, health care facilities, pharmacies, and other shops.
  • Mixed land use such as neighborhoods that combine restaurants, offices, housing, or shops.
  • Residential density to increase the variety of housing options in an area through compact community design and other approaches that reduce travel distances.
  • Parks and recreational facility access, such as parks and recreational facilities close to homes.

Potential state activities

Keep in mind

On this page:

* Designates short-term activities that may be accomplished in one to two years.

+ Designates activities that may take up to five years, depending on the organization's capacity, previous work in this area, and size of the project.

Create interdepartmental memoranda of understanding (MOU), interagency agreements, or staff-sharing agreements with key departments. Include the state’s transportation department in your cross-sectoral coalition as well as others, such as outdoor recreation offices or parks and recreation departments. Meet to formalize the public health relationship and identify topics, projects, communication channels, and opportunities for collaboration.*

Provide technical assistance* on:

  • Community engagement
  • Coalition building
  • Needs assessment
  • Action planning
  • Evaluation

Provide or promote training about activity-friendly communities to state leaders, state and local staff, and coalition members.*

Work with Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) or Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs) and state transportation departments to integrate health considerations into project scoring criteria. Help ensure connections with destinations. Consider engaging with parks and outdoor recreation offices to find opportunities to increase access to greenspace. Consider focusing on high-need areas+, such as:

  • Places to create safe routes to schools, parks, and libraries.
  • Places with the greatest opportunity for health impact.
  • Places with limited access to parks and greenspace.
  • Places with limited networks of activity-friendly infrastructure.
  • Places at risk for pedestrian or bicyclist injuries or fatalities.

Work with state transportation departments, MPOs, and RPOs to track and improve walking, bicycling, and transit conditions. In rural areas, consider working in places where more people live, such as small towns.+

Work with partners to establish or update+:

  • Master plans.
  • State pedestrian, bicycle, parks, trails, and recreation plans.
  • Housing, conservation, or economic development plans.
  • Land use plans and zoning policies.

Be sure that plans include people with limited access to places that support being active and actions that can have the most impact.

A smalltown downtown showing old store fronts and people.
Activity-friendly communities include places to shop, play, walk, and enjoy everything that the community has to offer.

Potential state and local activities

Establish, expand, or participate in a cross-sectoral coalition. Include:

  • Community members or champions.
  • People with limited access to places that support being active.
  • Representatives of public health, transportation, community planning, and parks and recreation.
  • Leaders who can help with specific issues, such as:
    • Economic development.
    • Early care and education, K–12 schools, and universities.
    • Healthy food access.
    • Housing.
    • Public safety and public works.

Work with a cross-sector team to conduct an assessment to support community actions that make it more activity friendly.*

Work with partners to conduct health impact assessments.* These could include an analysis of:

  • Park, trail, and greenway access and safety.
  • Walking, bicycling, and public transit access, convenience, and reliability.

Identify relevant state, regional, and local data. Use data on health conditions, health behaviors, and local capacity to support policies and plans for activity-friendly community design*. Prioritize communities with limited access to places that support being active. For example:

  • Collect health data such as physical activity levels, weight status, chronic diseases and risk behaviors, or pedestrian and bicycle injuries and deaths.
  • Use mapping software when appropriate to identify areas with the greatest opportunity for impact.

Develop, tailor, and distribute community-specific messages supporting active lifestyles. Develop and test messages locally with intended audiences.*

Collaborate with partners to support new or improved plans and policies, activity-friendly districts, and/or other activities to create activity-friendly communities.+ Examples include:

  • Community ideas and priorities: Innovative ideas and key priorities to improve communities. These ideas and priorities should be community created, demonstrating that residents are valued and appreciated.
  • Policies: Complete Streets, Safe Routes, and Vision Zero policies, including relevant city, school district, or parks and recreation department policies. Also includes policies to promote mixed land uses, transit-oriented development, and residential density (where applicable).
  • Plans: General or comprehensive land use plans that address physical activity, including action plans to implement policies. Include specific actions to reach the goals and objectives. Examples include:
    • Walking, bicycling, trails, and greenways master plans.
    • Complete Streets, Safe Routes for All, and Vision Zero action plans.
    • Incentives for activity-friendly project evaluation.
    • Plans to address vacant lots or deteriorated areas to promote walking and connectivity.
  • Projects: Pop-up or demonstration projects with evaluation measurement, such as:
    • Bike racks, crosswalks, or traffic calming measures.
    • New or improved sidewalks, protected bike lanes, or transit routes.
    • Placemaking: a collective process across a community to design public spaces that meet community needs and reflect the uniqueness of the community. For example, beautifying a sidewalk and street crossings between a public school and the nearby community center where before and after school care is provided.
  • Codes: Zoning, building, subdivision, or other codes/procedures, including those that integrate land use regulations with other municipal goals that guide form of buildings rather than land uses, or those that encourage districts that promote walking and other activity.
  • Programs: Safe Routes to School or Safe Routes to Parks that encourage people to use safe routes.
  • Systems: Increase bicycle, pedestrian, and transit (where applicable) network connectivity and access, park coverage and accessibility, and incentives for activity-friendly project evaluation or supportive land development, such as plans to address vacant lots or deteriorated areas.

Track the progress on community supported plans and policies related to physical activity.+

Potential local activities

Conduct walk/move audits with local decision-makers and community members. Select community members who represent diverse perspectives, such as age, ability, race/ethnicity, sex, and income.*

Conduct and evaluate inclusive demonstration projects supported by the affected communities. Demonstration projects can help build support for more permanent changes because communities can test approaches specific to their needs. Measure the effect of the demonstration project on outcomes, such as use of public spaces, safer streets and increased walking, bicycling, or people who use a wheelchair.*

Rate access to parks, trails, greenways, and recreational facilities and work with community coalitions to create or improve safe access to these locations.*

Assess concerns related to activity-friendly community design by engaging community organizations, champions, and experts who can address these concerns.*

Provide training or technical assistance to coalition members and community leaders on activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations.*

Work with partners to establish or update comprehensive plans. Prioritize access to physical activity for everyone as well as specific actions to support that access. Consider people with limited access to places that support being active+. Examples include plans covering:

  • Regional and local areas
  • Land use and zoning
  • Pedestrian and bicycle use
  • Parks and recreation
  • Housing
  • Conservation or economic development

Work with partners to protect local priorities through updated zoning codes guidance and practices to include activity-friendly design.+

Working together

Louisiana Leads the Way: Supporting Activity-Friendly Rural Communities
Louisiana tapped into millions of federal Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) funds available to rural Louisiana communities. Public health partners collaborated with state officials to lower the match requirement for rural communities. 11 rural towns secured over $13 million to create safer, walkable towns.

Active Transportation Spotlight: Nashville Area Regional Transportation Plan
The Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization added project scoring criteria related to health and safety to its regional plans. The goal was to increase opportunities for walking, rolling, and biking. Now, the majority of projects selected for funding should include a bicycling or walking component.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Program Supports Local Physical Activity in Indiana
The Indiana State Department of Health worked with partners to conduct more than 40 workshops on various topics, including how to create pedestrian and bicycle plans. They also provided $20,000 each to 13 communities to prepare bicycle and pedestrian plans.

See more real-world examples.

Resources

Active Communities Tool
Helps committed, cross-sector teams create an action plan to improve community environments that promote physical activity and meet the needs of their community.

Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) Tools
Helps assess the physical environment features and amenities, town characteristics, community programs, and strategies that can affect physical activity among residents in rural communities.

A Guide to Building Healthy Streets: How Public Health Can Help Implement Complete Streets (PDF)
Focuses on how public health practitioners can work with other agencies to implement Complete Streets.

Built Environment Approaches Combining Transportation System Interventions with Land Use and Environmental Design
Explains how to combine interventions to improve pedestrian or bicycle transportation systems with land use and environmental design interventions to increase physical activity.

Everyday Destinations blog series
Describes 15 planning approaches that mall and rural communities can use.

Fostering Healthy Communities Through Planning and Public Health Collaboration
Shows how planners and public health professionals can work together to create healthy communities.

Public Health Action Guide: Public Transit
Promotes the health benefits of expanding public transit options and shares actions for public health professionals.

See more resources.

Definitions

Activity-friendly communities are places with destinations such as parks, schools and shops that are attractive and accessible to the community through activity-friendly routes. These communities support physical activity through community design by supporting activity friendly routes to everyday destinations.

Activity-friendly routes include safe and convenient networks that allow someone to walk, roll, or bicycle to everyday destinations. Public transit supports these routes because people who use transit are more likely to meet physical activity guidelines. These routes can offer a safe, direct and convenient connection with everyday destinations and may include well-maintained sidewalks, crosswalks, protected bicycle lanes, multi-use trails, and sufficient lighting at night.

Everyday destinations are places people go frequently. Some examples include homes, workplaces, shops, schools, libraries, parks, restaurants, cultural and natural landmarks, or health care facilities.

Land use refers to how land is used and what can be built on it. Land use goals that support increased physical activity include:

  • Mixed land use, such as neighborhoods that combine restaurants, offices, housing, or shops.
  • Increased residential density, such as sustainable, compact development with housing options that include smaller and multi-family homes.
  • Community destinations that are accessible and close to one another.
  • Access to public parks or public recreational facilities.

See more definitions.

Cross-cutting areas

Communication tips to support program efforts.

Evaluation framework for making evaluations useful, feasible, ethical, accurate, and culturally responsive.

Additional priority strategies

Breastfeeding Continuity of Care

Early Care and Education (ECE) Strategies

Family Healthy Weight Programs

Food Service and Nutrition Guidelines

Voucher Incentives and Produce Prescription Programs

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