Creating and Sustaining Healthy Communities

Kim Irwin, MPHExecutive Director

Alliance for Health Promotion

Health by Design is a coalition of diverse partners working to ensure that Indianapolis

and communities around the state have neighborhoods, public spaces and

transportation infrastructure that promote physical activity and healthy living.

Our priority goals:• Increase walking, biking, and other public

transit options. • Increase neighborhood, city, and regional

connectivity. • Encourage land use decision making that

promotes public health. • Reduce dependency on automobiles.

Are Indiana’s adults healthy?• 34.8% are overweight• 30.8% are obese (8th highest in US)• 29.2% do not participate in any physical activity in the

past month• 32.8% have been told they have high blood pressure• 10.2% have been told they have diabetes• 13.9% have been told they have asthma

Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Adults (18+ years of age), Indiana, 2011

A Policy, Systems, EnvironmentalChange Model

Knowledge and skills (traditional PH approach)

+ Environments= Sustainable behavior change

Socio-Ecological Model

For improved public health, we must also become engaged in discussions about transportation & land use.

Health by Design’s Approach

Active LivingA way of life that integrates physical activity into

daily routines

“When communities organize themselves around the automobile as the primary mode of transportation,

they effectively engineer physical activity right out of the equation.”

Neil Caudle

Place Matters• Where you live determines how well you live.

• Tell me your zip code, I’ll tell you your life expectancy.

“The built environment is social policy in concrete.”

Dr. Richard Jackson, UCLAwww.designinghealthycommunities.org

We know how to build complete streets

Yet too often we end up with this…

…and this…

…and this.

We Need Options

• Nearly one-third of Americans don’t drive

• 55% of Americans would rather drive less & walk more.

• 57% would like to spend less time in the car

• 73% currently feel they have no choice but to drive as much as they do

50% of all trips are shorter than 3 miles28% of trips are one mile or less

72% of these trips are made by auto

Widening roads to reduce

congestion is like loosening your

belt to lose weight.

Public Transportation and Health• Studies show that

transit riders walk more per day than car commuters.

• Traffic injury & fatality rates decline as transit ridership increases.

• Reduced car trips improve air quality– Transit produces lower emissions per passenger mile.

We Need Options

• 47% of older Americans say it is unsafe to cross a major street near their home.

• 54% of older Americans living in inhospitable neighborhoods say they would walk and bike more often if the built environment improved.

Dangerous by Design

An overwhelming proportion of

pedestrian deaths have occurred “along

roadways that were dangerous by

design, streets that were engineered for

speeding cards and made little or no

provision for people on foot, in

wheelchairs or on a bicycle.”

Transportation for America

Incomplete Streets are Unsafe

06

12

Bicyclists and Pedestrians

Crash Facts

• Pedestrians and cyclists disproportionately

face risk– Ethnic and racial minorities

– Children and older adults

Image from Dangerous by Design, T4A

Speed Kills

Designing & Building Healthy Places

• Start with a Vision

• Integrate Land Use and Transportation Planning

• Institutionalize What Workswww.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

• Prioritize Walking and Biking– Develop, adopt and implement master plans– Set explicit goals for bike/ped mode share – Dedicate funding to bike/ped infrastructure– Support policies and activities to promote safety– Adopt design guidelines – Prioritize connections to transit– Require participation of private development

Designing & Building Healthy Places

Walkability• People with access to sidewalks are more

likely to walk and meet the Surgeon General’s recommendations for physical activity.

• People who report having access to walking/jogging trails are 55% more likely to be physically active.

What’s more inviting?

• Comprehensive Land Use Planning• Transit-Oriented Development

(TOD)• Mixed-income Housing• Infill Development• Rehab of Blighted Areas

Designing & Building Healthy Places

• Zoning–Mixed-Use–Form Based Codes–Overlay Zones–Transfer of

Development Rights

• Incentives, Bonuses, Waivers

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Designing & Building Healthy Places

• Parking Policies

– A parking ‘problem’ is actually a good thing!

– #BlackFridayParking www.strongtowns.org

Here's the great thing: the solution to this problem is really, really easy. All a city needs to do is repeal their parking minimums.

If you want to stop this ridiculous waste of resources, support small businesses, encourage reuse of existing

properties, limit environmental degradationand make your city financially stronger,

just repeal your minimum parking requirement.

No lawyer or expensive consultant is necessary.

- Jonathan Nettler, Planetizen

• Open Spaces, Parks, and Recreation– Greenfield & farmland preservation– Plan for connectivity and access– Use out-of-service rail corridors – Convert vacant lots into community gardens, parks and other green

spaces– Use joint-use agreements to increase activity options

– Integrate greenway plans, trails and parks with land-use, transportation, economic development plans and subdivision ordinances

Designing & Building Healthy Places

• Include Healthy Food Access in Comp Plans• Promote, Expand and Protect Sites for

Community Gardens and Farmers’ Markets• Zone to Limit/Restrict Fast Food Establishments • Restrict Mobile Vending of Calorie-Dense,

Nutrient-Poor Foods • Provide Permits/Licenses and Incentives

Designing & Building Healthy Places

Complete Streets

Complete Streets are streets for everyone. They are designed and operated to enable safe

access for all users.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users of all ages and abilities are

able to safely move along and across a complete street.

The Benefits of Complete Streets

• Complete streets make economic sense. • Complete streets improve safety.• Complete streets encourage walking and biking.• Complete streets ease transportation woes. • Complete streets help children. • Complete streets are good for air quality. • Complete streets make fiscal sense.

Design Elements• All users must be able to safely move

along and across a complete street.

• Complete streets are appropriate in all communities, regardless of size or setting.

• Each complete street is unique

Complete Streets Policies• Creating complete streets means transportation agencies must

change their orientation from building primarily for cars.

• A 2-Step Process:– Institutionalize - All New Projects– Target Retrofits

• Policy Types & Levels– Public: legislation, ordinances, resolutions, executive order – Internal: policies, plans, manuals– Local, MPO, State, Federal

The Best Complete Streets Policies

• Apply to all phases of all projects

• Feature direct use of the latest and best design standards

• Allow flexibility in balancing user needs

• Specify any exceptions and require high-level approval of them.

1. Bloomington/Monroe County MPO (policy, 2009)

2. Madison County MPO (policy, 2010)3. Northwest IN MPO (resolution, 2010)4. City of Columbus (plan, 2010)5. City of Richmond (plan, 2011)6. City of Frankfort (resolution, 2012)7. Evansville MPO (policy, 2012)8. Tippecanoe County MPO (plan, 2012)9. City of Indianapolis (ordinance, 2012)10. City of Westfield (resolution, 2012)11. City of Peru (ordinance, 2013)

Complete Streets policies now cover 36% of Hoosiers (over 2 million people)

Complete StreetsThe Indianapolis Complete Streets ordinance was adopted unanimously by the City-County Council and signed into law by Mayor Greg Ballard in August 2012.

It was named the best policy in the nation in 2012.

Advocacy Campaigns

• Sign-on letters• Petitions• Media Advocacy• Social Media• Neighborhood Meetings• Meetings with Decision Makers

• School siting criteria– Build new schools in central locations near residential areas

and away from busy roads– Renovate or rebuild within

neighborhoods

• Policy barriers– Construction funding formulas– Minimum acreage standards

www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

Designing & Building Healthy Places

Safe Routes to School• In 1969, approximately 50% of children walked or

bicycled to school– 87% of children living within one mile of school

• Today, fewer than 15% of schoolchildren walk or bicycle to school

Safe Routes to School

• Has there been a SRTS award in your town?

• Increase School/Community Participation

• Walk/Bike to School Day

• State Partner Networkwww.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

So What Can You Do?

• Learn and get involved in the process

• Lead or participate in an advocacy group

• Examine the environment and policies in your

community

• Invite others to get involved

• Take action!

Active Living Workshops

• Full-day workshop and evening public meeting

• Generate momentum and recommendations for active living improvements

• Governments and nonprofits can apply

• Applications due 1/10/14

Questions?

Health by Design401 W. Michigan Street

Indianapolis, IN 46202-3233 317.352.3844

info@healthbydesignonline.org www.healthbydesignonline.org

an Alliance for Health Promotion initiative