2253 No Small Potatoes: Making the Health and Economic Case for Walking and Bicycling in Rural Idaho

Publication date: June 2018 Source:Journal of Transport & Health, Volume 9, Supplement Author(s): Donald Kostelec Baked. Fried. Scalloped. Mashed. Boiled. The diversity of Idaho communities is almost as diverse as the ways to serve the state's most famous crop; potatoes. And the way Idaho addresses walking and bicycling is just as creative. As Idaho's rural areas remain challenged by a loss of manufacturing, logging, and mining, the small cities that dot the state have worked to re-tool their image and find creative, low-budget ways to improve walking and bicycling and promote a healthy community. This session will delve into those solutions as well as how the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) is working with the state's health districts on built-environment interventions to improve active transportation. It profiles successes and challenges discovered through a multi-year effort to assess walking and biking conditions in 25 different Idaho communities and train local officials on the suitable conditions for walkability, which culminated in a year-long effort to quantify the health and economic impacts of active modes. The session concludes with a facilitated discussion on what types of data and analysis tools are available and most relevant for small towns and rural areas, and how that differs greatly from urbanized areas. The IDHW effort began with a series of Activity Connection Plans (ACP) for 25 small towns. The premise of this exercise was to deve...
Source: Journal of Transport and Health - Category: Occupational Health Source Type: research