Neighborhoods can provide opportunities for physical activity in
daily life by designing transportation systems to accommodate and
encourage walking and bicycling for travel to work, school, and
other daily destinations. Healthy neighborhoods offer bikeable,
walkable or transit-oriented transportation systems that
are:
Safe
Provide appropriate travel options
Easily accessed
Feasible for all populations and all trip purposes
Key words: planning for biking, planning for walking, transit
oriented development, complete streets, safe routes to school,
concentrated development, climate change action
The following case stories featured in this section are examples
of incorporating transportation and mobility planning with
creating healthy neighborhoods. Some of the case stories were
prepared in collaboration with other Institute programs.
Creating transportation systems that support the mobility of all
residents and offer a balanced menu of transit options is a
critical component of healthy neighborhoods.
With a goal of increasing transit ridership in a ½ mile radius of
the downtown Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station, the City of
San Leandro received a planning grant from the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission (MTC) to focus on the proposed downtown
bus rapid transit corridor and existing BART service.
To fulfill the city council’s goal of becoming an environmentally
sustainable community by 2012, the City of Covina is seeking
innovative solutions and pioneering new technology to get people
to drive less and to walk, bike and use transit more often.
The City of Riverbank’s 2009 general plan update focuses on
increasing transportation choices available to residents through
closer integration of land use and transportation planning. This
includes increasing street “connectivity” (the frequency with
which streets or roads intersect) and other strategies supporting
non-automobile travel. The city works closely with developers to
implement these goals.
