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A new $2.8 million effort, partnering public and private funding agencies, will examine how better community design encourages people to be more physically active in their daily lives. Researchers will identify how our built environment contributes to obesity and how environmental changes can combat a growing public health problem. "We need to be as creative and inventive as we can to encourage Americans to make physical activity a part of their daily lives," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "This new partnership is one more example of how we are working to promote physical activity and improve public health." The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is paying for the five-year evaluation of communities located across the U.S. to assess the impact on physical activity and obesity of local design and transportation changes.

As policy-makers and the public debate the different aspects of growth and development, Smart Growth America and the National Association of Realtors

This article describes Project Brotherhood: A Black Men's Clinic, which is run by Dr. Eric Whitaker and located in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. The clinic helps African-American men in this south Chicago neighborhood combat heart disease (a leading killer of black men in this community), and provide them with other necessary services.

Walking buses are a relatively new phenomenon to encourage children to use an alternative to the car to travel to school. They consist of a group of children walking in a line along a set route, escorted by adults, and stopping to collect children at specific stops. There have been few systematic evaluations of their effectiveness as policy instruments. This paper describes a methodological framework to evaluate walking buses that is being developed as part of a larger project on children's car use.

Reframing the Traditional Role of Public Health

The report provides a detailed description of the historical backdrop, players, strategy, public policies, and civil rights legal case brought by local groups who challenged the Los Angeles MTA. Contact Labor Community Strategy Center at (213) 387-2800 or laborctr@igc.apc.org

This article reviews the purpose, scope and conclusions on US studies regarding the social cost of motor vehicle use.

This article reviews the purpose, scope and conclusions on US studies regarding the social cost of motor vehicle use.

This is a guide to help professionals and communities with the process of building a community-wide pedestrian safety program.

This manual identifies the dilemma faced by public agencies and private organizations interested in acquiring abandoned or unused railroad corridors for conversion to trails or greenways and offers solutions. The book is based on the experiences of hundreds of rail-trail projects that have been successfully completed and is designed to help readers get to the negotiating table, and then, to successfully negotiate a winning deal for their community.

ACSM's Fit Society

The National Blueprint: Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 50 and Older has been developed to serve as a guide for multiple organizations, associations and agencies, to inform and support their planning work related to increasing physical activity among America's aging population.

Active for Life

This includes findings of a survey that explored how local government leaders view their role in enabling active living in communities. The goal was to understand leaders' level of awareness about active living, their barriers to making communities more activity friendly and their greatest needs.

This presentation provides a general overview of the relationships between the built environment, transportation, and physical activity and will outline the Active Living movement in the United States.