Webinar: Resources to Improve Health and Promote Active Transportation

Later this week, on June 21 at 2:00 pm ET, I will be presenting on a webinar hosted by the American Public Health Association. The webinar, “Resources to Improve Health and Promote Active Transportation” also features speakers from Rails to Trails Conservancy and American Planning Association. This webinar will focus on resources that advocates, agency staff and others can use in their communities.

Please sign up for the webinar here.

The webinar will be hosted by Kate Robb, Senior Manager for Environmental Health for the APHA Center for Public Health Policy. The APHA’s Center for Public Health Policy highlights the connections between communities and public health, using evidence-based policies and practices to create health equity for all. Their work often includes how bicycling and walking promote health and mitigate threats to health such as climate change.

I will be talking about the Benchmarking Report on Bicycling and Walking in the United States. Last year, the APHA, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and the League launched bikingandwalkingbenchmarks.org as an online companion to the Benchmarking Report, which has been published every other year since 2010. The 2018 edition of the Benchmarking Report is currently being reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and will be published later this year. My presentation will focus on the functionality of bikingandwalkingbenchmarks.org and a brief preview of the upcoming 2018 report.

Liz Thorstensen, Vice President of Trail Development for the Rails to Trails Conservancy will discuss Reconnecting Milwaukee: A BikeAble study of Opportunity, Equity and Connectivity. This study used RTC’s BikeAble tool to analyze bicycle connectivity to determine the availability of low-stress routes for bicycling in Milwaukee. It found that neighborhoods where people are more likely to live under the poverty line, be unemployed, lack a college degree, do not own a vehicle and are either African American or Hispanic disproportionately lack access to bicycling and walking facilities. This study also suggests specific improvements such as trail facilities along two corridors that could increase biking access to trails from 8% for neighborhoods experiencing inequality to 66%.

Sagar Shah, Research Associate for the American Planning Association will discuss the APA’s Planners4Health program that focuses on cross-disciplinary activities to advance the practice at the intersection of public health and planning. For planners, Plan4Health provides a six-part curriculum to help planners understand public health issues and integrate health into planning. This curriculum covers the frameworks, data, marketing, and other considerations needed as planners work within their communities to ensure that their communities promote health, including through active transportation.

Ken McLeod is the League’s Policy Director.