Transportation and urban planning: Involvement in state planning for active living

Introduction: Many states developed obesity, nutrition, or other physical activity (PA) related plans in an attempt to coordinate statewide efforts. Increasing this complex behavior warrants transdisciplinary stakeholder involvement in both development and implementation. Focusing on community-scale and street-scale urban design and land use policies are recommended for increasing population PA through improved or redesigned infrastructure. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the level of involvement of the transportation and community design sectors in development of state PA-related plans and to summarize goals, objectives, and strategies related to built environment, transportation, land use or community design. Methods: For this study, PA-related plans were collected and analyzed for the participation of these sectors on the development team. Additionally, the goals, objectives, and strategies with a focus on the built environment, transportation, or land use and community design were summarized across states. Results: Less than half of the plans had transportation representatives and fewer included the land use and community design sector. Most state PA-related plans did not emphasize infrastructure improvement as a means to increasing population PA. A majority of plans included goals and objectives focused on active transportation to school, and less frequently, aspects of complete streets. Conclusion: Even though transportation and urban design offer important means of improving opportunities to be physically active, representatives of these disciplines are not always present in state PA-related plan development. Purposeful engagement of these sectors, including identification of common goals, is necessary for the enhancement and implementation of infrastructure goals and objectives.