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Session: Built Environment Institute II: Community Design and Health Impact: Toward the Full Integration of Walking and Biking as Alternative Modes of Transportation
3258.0: Monday, November 8, 2004: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM
Oral
Built Environment Institute II: Community Design and Health Impact: Toward the Full Integration of Walking and Biking as Alternative Modes of Transportation
Several studies now indicate that sprawling development has a hand in the country's obesity crisis. Conclusions drawn, among others, find that people living in automobile-dependent neighborhoods that suppress walking do indeed walk less, weigh more, and are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure than those living in less sprawling communities. Paralleling the recent national attention to diet, this research suggests that the lack of convenient, walking and biking transportation options in our communities may help explain why so many Americans are battling high blood pressure and obesity. Creating neighborhoods and cities that offer a wider variety of transportation options that invite walking, biking and other physical activity as a routine part of everyday life is a likely solution to solving this growing epidemic and healthcare burden. This session will present a general discussion of the issue, offer a case study, investigate the challenges community planners and designers face when considering a variety of transportation options, and offer potential design solutions, some of which are already currently active communities.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to identify some of the environmental factors related to the built environment that are associated with bicycling and walking for transport; better recognize the range of land-use issues that impact the choice to bicycle or walk; identify transportation policy and design issues that can degrade or enhance bicycling and walking; gain an awareness of currently active communities and discuss potential solutions to incorporate walking and biking as normal everyday routine modes of transportation.
Organizer(s):Neal L. Rosenblatt, MS
Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
Moderator(s):Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
2:30 PMBicycle-Friendly and Walkable Communities: Necessary Conditions
Bill Wilkinson
2:50 PMPerceived environmental factors associated with bicycling and walking as a mean of transport among middle and low income populations of young adults in Bogotá, Colombia  [ Recorded presentation ]
Olga Sarmiento, MD MPH PhD, Luis Gomez, MD MPH, Diego Lucumi, MD MPH
3:10 PMHow transportation planners respond to the challenges to engineer environments that promote biking and walking - Health impact assessment of transportation projects  [ Recorded presentation ]
Catherine L. Ross, PhD
3:30 PMSolutions: Use of transit oriented and other designs to promote biking and walking  [ Recorded presentation ]
Reid Ewing, PhD
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organized by:Environment
Endorsed by:Community Health Planning and Policy Development; Food and Nutrition; Health Administration; Public Health Education and Health Promotion
CE Credits:CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA