Promote community walking and bicycling audits
Action
State health departments can improve access to walking and bicycling by helping local jurisdictions conduct walking and cycling audits. The audits survey the physical design of communities to determine the barriers that may inhibit walking and biking, and to identify opportunities to encourage such activities by increasing connectivity, installing sidewalks and designing streets to adequately accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.
The audits can then be used to suggest or justify land-use changes that will make walking or bicycling more viable. States can employ the audits in conjunction with development of their own statewide bicycle and pedestrian plans. This requires coordination among various agencies, including transportation, planning, and health departments.
Process
Walking and bicycling audits can be joint efforts of various state agencies. States also can provide grants directly to jurisdictions to fund audits of their own communities.
With limited resources, prioritizing funding is crucial. Audits can be connected to performance measures so that communities can work with planning departments and other land-use agencies to identify opportunities for improving their conditions for pedestrians and bicycles, and to ensure that those projects will be given funding priority.
Example
- California Center for Physical Activity's Walk Kit
The California Center for Physical Activity, in partnership with the University of California-San Francisco's Institute for Health and Aging, created a Walk Kit. The Walk Kit is designed to give local residents and health officials the tools they need to create successful walking groups and advocate for safe and accessible walking routes in their communities. The kit suggests that community members perform a walking audit to survey their community's existing road networks and cultural and historical features as a first step in the process of achieving improved walkability. The kit includes a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's walkability audit tool and an attached walkability checklist that can help residents identify walkable areas in their communities.
— California Center for Physical Activity’s Walk Kit
