1. Promoting Complete Streets
for Healthy Communities
Kim Irwin, MPH
Executive Director
Alliance for Health Promotion
April 27, 2012
Annual Meeting
Indiana Cancer Consortium

2. The Health by Design Coalition
More than 500 members representing 200+ orgs
Non-profits  academia  private industries
and businesses  environmental groups
Planners, designers, architects, and builders 
transportation officials  public health and environmental
professionals  recreation and safety personnel 
concerned citizens
YOU?

3. Our focus:
How the built environment
(neighborhoods, communities,
transportation systems,
buildings, regions,
parks, and open spaces)
impacts public health.

5. Active Living
A way of life that integrates physical
activity into daily routines
“When communities organize
themselves around the automobile
as the primary mode of transportation,
they effectively engineer physical activity
right out of the equation.”
Neil Caudle

6. What do these reports all recommend?
 White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity
Report and Action Plan (2010)
 APHA’s The Hidden Health Costs of
Transportation (2010)
 CDC’s Transportation Recommendations (2010)
 National Physical Activity Plan (2010)
 Institutes of Medicine’s Local Government
Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity (2009)

7. Complete Streets for Healthy Living
Complete Streets are designed and operated so that they
are safe, comfortable, and convenient for all users-
pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists of
all ages and abilities.
Complete Streets Policies
 Create a new vision
 Institutionalize Planning and Decision-making
 Result in a safer, healthier built environment

8. Indiana Cancer Control Plan 2010-2014
 The Plan includes
strategies – like Complete
Streets – that support
active living communities
for adults and children

9. Comprehensive Cancer Control Policy
Technical Assistance Agenda
 Increase the percentage of Indiana residents
who work in a smoke-free workplace
 Increase the Indiana cigarette excise tax
 Increase the number of Complete
Streets policies at the local level
 Amend legislation to require elementary schools
to incorporate 30 of the recommended 60
minutes of daily physical activity

10. Indiana’s Comprehensive Nutrition and
Physical Activity Plan, 2010-2020
 The IHWI and ISDH
released the State
Obesity Plan in January
2011.
 The Plan outlines a plan
of action for different
settings to address
obesity in Indiana,
including Complete
Streets.

11. Why Do We Need Complete Streets?

12. Why do we need complete
streets?
 Obesity is lower in places where people use
bikes, public transit, and their feet (Pucher,
2009).
 States with the lowest levels of walking and
biking have on avg. the highest levels of obesity,
diabetes, and high blood pressure.
 The CDC recently named the adoption of CS
policies as a recommended strategy to
prevent obesity (2009).

13. Complete Streets & Public Health

14. Streets Are Inadequate
TOO DANGEROUS TO CROSS ON FOOT

15. Streets Are Inadequate
UNINVITING FOR BUS RIDERS

16. Streets Are Inadequate
NO SIDEWALKS

17. Why do we need complete
streets?
 Americans WANT to walk and bicycle more .
 Recent opinion polls found that 52% of
Americans want to bicycle more, and 55%
would prefer to drive less and walk more.

19. Streets Are Inadequate
TOO NARROW TO SHARE WITH BIKES

20. Streets Are Inadequate
INACCESSIBLE FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

21. Negative Health Impact of
INCOMPLETE Streets
One study found that, on a daily basis, each
additional hour spent driving is associated with a
6% increase in the likelihood of obesity.
Each additional kilometer walked is associated
with a 5% reduction in this likelihood.

22. Streets Are Inadequate
NO ROOM FOR BIKES OR PEDESTRIANS

23. Streets Are Inadequate
NO ROOM FOR PEOPLE

24. Key Message
National Walking Survey - 2011
 The second most cited reason for not walking
was neighborhood-related barriers, such as not
enough sidewalks or being wary of speeding
traffic.
 Neighborhoods that are more walkable are
home to a greater number of frequent
walkers.

25. Incomplete Streets Are Unsafe
Alliance for Biking & Walking 2010 Benchmarking Report

26. Complete Streets Policies
 330+ jurisdictions nationally have a stated
commitment to complete streets
 Policy Types
– Public: legislation, ordinances, resolutions, executive orders
– Internal: policies, plans, manuals
 Policy Levels
– Local, MPO, State, Federal

27. Who has Complete Street Policies
in Indiana?
 Northwest Indiana MPO
 Bloomington MPO
 Madison County MPO
 Columbus, Indiana
 Evansville MPO
Complete Streets policies
now cover 20% of Indiana’s
population.

28. The Best Complete Streets Policies
 Apply to all phases of all projects
 Feature direct use of the latest and best design
standards
 Allow flexibility in balancing user needs
 Specify any exceptions and require high-level
approval of them

29. Design Elements
 All users must be able to safely move along
and across a complete street.
 Each complete street is unique.
 Complete streets are appropriate in all
communities, regardless of size or setting.

30. Why Policy Change is important:
 Changing policy so that our transportation
system routinely includes the needs of people on
foot, wheelchairs, public transportation, and
bicycles means that walking, riding bikes, and
riding buses and trains will be safer and
easier.
 People of all ages and abilities will have more
options when traveling to work, to school, to the
grocery store, and to visit family.

31. Smallest
Impact
One-on-one & Small group
education, health fairs
Counseling
& Education
Provider Brief intervention
Clinical
Interventions
PHS Guidelines
Long-lasting
Protective Interventions
Largest
Changing the Context POLICY
Impact
to make individuals’ default
decisions healthy
Poverty, housing,
Socioeconomic Factors education

32. Complete Streets =
Livable Communities
 Complete streets make fiscal & economic
sense
 Complete streets improve safety
 Complete streets encourage physical activity
 Complete streets ease transportation woes
 Complete streets benefit children
 Complete streets are good for air quality

33. So What Can You Do?
 Learn and get involved in the process
 Participate in an advocacy group
 Examine the environment and policies in
your community
 Invite others to get involved
 Take action!

34. Media Advocacy: Shape the Story
 Translate the individual problem to a
community issue
 Assign primary
responsibility
 Present a solution

35. Media Advocacy: Shape the Story
VS…

36. Media Advocacy: Shape the Story

37. SHAPE the Story
Find the authentic voices:
The elderly, bikers, walkers, school-
aged children, those without cars,
visually impaired, pedestrians/bikers
injured in car crashes, etc…

38. Questions and Next Steps
 What are your next  Who can be your
steps to help partners?
promote Complete  What assistance do
Streets in your you need?
community?

39. Contact information:
Health by Design
401 W. Michigan Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3233
317.352.3844
info@healthbydesignonline.org
www.healthbydesignonline.org
an Alliance for Health Promotion initiative