Walkability Action Institute

Over the last 50-60 years, communities in the U.S. have been designed to accommodate cars over all other forms of transportation. We've built subdivisions and commerce corridors without sidewalks. Neighborhood schools have been abandoned across the country and significantly fewer children are within walking distance to school. Collectively, we've made series of land use decisions that discourage people from walking, bicycling, and taking transit.

 

America is raising a generation of kids who get so little physical activity that it's estimated they will tend to have shorter statistical life expectancies than their parents because of the diseases of sedentary lifestyles—cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, clinical depression, dementia in old age, and a growing list of cancers.

 

The Walkability Action Institute (WAI) has developed a course to help communities plan and implement inclusive mobility strategies to help fight this trend. They tasked us with capturing the breadth of the WAI to help the NACDD promote and offer the course in more areas around the country.