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Resources

The built environment is made up of all the places we live, work, and play. It includes our streets, parks, schools, workplaces, homes, and public space. From temporary, short-term, active events like CicLAvia to long-range policies that ensure that all residents can safely and comfortably use public streets, there are a wide range of possibilities for changing how people interact with and are affected by the built environment. Here you’ll find links to the innovative work that organizations in California and around the country have done to improve health through changes to the built environment.

Health Language in Transportation Policies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published “Recommendations for Improving Health Through Transportation Policy” in recognition of the impact that transportation systems have on health and quality of life. This document outlines innovative policies and programs that protect and promote health while accomplishing transportation objectives. The recommendations include policies that improve air quality, reduce injuries, and/or promote physical activity through transportation.

The Changelab Solutions report, “Healthy Planning Policies - A Compendium from California General Plans,” offers insight into some of the strategies that cities have employed to incorporate health into land use and transpiration policies.

“How to Create and Implement Healthy General Plans: A Toolkit for Building Healthy, Vibrant Communities” describes the possibilities available for improving health through the general plan process. It includes model language and standards for creating and implementing plans like those in the Compendium above.

Active Living by Design offers a variety of resources, including webinars and case studies of promising practices in healthy planning. Their Resources page is particularly useful for highlighting resources available for anyone interested in lessons learned, growing a movement and advancing active transportation.

Safe Routes to School Resources
The PLACE program developed Let’s Walk to School Together! A Walking School Bus Training Manual as a resource for adult volunteers interested in starting a Walking School Bus program at their school. A Walking School Bus is an adult-supervised group walk to and/or from school. The goal of the program is to encourage students to walk to school, and is one of many possible Safe Routes to School programs. The Training Manual outlines key phases of a Walking School Bus program’s development and provides customizable templates that can help kick-start the program. In addition, a flyer (English and Spanish )is available to help recruit volunteers for the program.

Safety Tips for Pedestrians, Bicyclists, and Motorists

The PLACE program compiled safety tips for people walking, adult cyclists, and children cyclists. The Automobile Association of America (AAA) has compiled safe driving resources and additional resources for older adult drivers. Healthcare providers are encouraged to discuss safe roadway behaviors and distribute these tips to their patients to build awareness of traffic safety. Since pedestrians and bicyclists are disproportionately impacted in fatal and severe injury traffic collisions, alerting patients to the importance of safe walking, bicycling, and scooting is critical. To learn more about safely using e-scooters, please visit: http://dcba.lacounty.gov/eridesafety/

Model Design Manual for Living Streets
This manual focuses on all users and all modes, seeking to achieve balanced street design that accommodates cars while ensuring that pedestrians, cyclists and transit users can travel safely and comfortably. Download the PDF version Model Design Manual for Living Streets or an editable MS Word version here.

Cities may use this manual in any way that helps them update their current practices, including adopting the entire manual, adopting certain chapters in full or part, modifying or customizing chapters to suit each city’s needs.

Download PDF version Model Design Manual for Living Streets  or editable MS Word version from the dedicated page for this manual here.

Estimating Cost to Build Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure in the SCAG Region
Every four years the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) updates the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The RTP is a long-range (25-year) transportation plan for the Southern California and it has the potential to reduce air pollution, increase the walkability and bikeability of cities in the region, and expand the public transit system.

In 2012, to support SCAG’s efforts in making difficult resource allocation decisions, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health estimated the cost of creating pedestrian and bicycle improvements throughout the SCAG region. The accompanying document provides the calculations and assumptions used in our draft analysis. There are three components to the analysis: bicycle costs; pedestrian costs; and bicycle and pedestrian costs in Transit Oriented Districts (TODs). We estimate a range from $37 billion to $59 billion over the 25-year period.

Additional Resources

Organizations and Websites to Know
Here you’ll find links to outstanding organizations that have experience promoting, implementing, and evaluating policies that support healthier built environments in Los Angeles County and California. This link also includes websites that offer insight into the news and opinion of the urban planning and public health communities.

Articles and Reports
This page contains links to articles and reports about exciting research at the intersection of health and the built environment. Recent reports about active transportation demonstrate the value of changing the built environment to improve health. Case studies showcase the progress that local governments have made in this area.

Data Sources
These links include official reports and data sets that offer insight into health outcomes and transportation patterns in Los Angeles County, the state of California, and the nation.

Funding Opportunities
Several organizations and governmental departments at the state and national levels offer funding for the development and/or implementation of active living policies and plans.

Navigating LA on Bike, Foot, & Transit
Learn more about how to get around Los Angeles County by bicycling, walking, and public transit.
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Public Health has made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translation. However, no computerized translation is perfect and is not intended to replace traditional translation methods. If questions arise concerning the accuracy of the information, please refer to the English edition of the website, which is the official version.
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