4P Policy Tactics

Establish a close and consistent link between land use and transportation plans and priorities.

Land use and transportation plans are documents created by local city planners that guide how a city's land uses and transportation system should be used and how they will impact growth in the future.  The link between land use and transportation has grown increasingly important as our development patterns have sprawled outwardly from cities and left us dependent on the automobile for nearly all transportation.  By prioritizing plans and policy decisions that focus on this link, decision makers can make a concerted effort to ensure that land use decisions will work to create a more compact, mixed land use pattern that offers shorter distances to destinations and a variety of transportation options.  In order to do so, land use and transportation plans must be designed in collaboration with one another to focus on providing a mixture of land uses that present convenient siting of important destinations such as public schools and civic buildings with multimodal transportation, including walking, biking, and public transit.

Approve local ordinances and other policies that are consistent with land use and transportation plans and that promote active living.

In order to bring about a successful change in the built environment, local policies must reflect the goals and objectives of land use and transportation plans.  Local polices that directly promote the use of integrated land uses and mixed transportation options will help these plans reach their maximum potential to create an environment where individuals can walk and bike to destinations.  Local leaders must therefore recognize the need for this consistency by enacting policies aligned with Active Living principles to support compact, healthy environments.

Update road policies, standards, parking requirements and fees to improve connectivity, safety, street design and incentives for transit and active transportation.

Ensuring that polices are designed to support alternative modes of transportation is essential to enhance a transportation system that effectively promotes transit usage and walking and biking.  Understanding how road and parking policies can affect these transportation modes is an important step in this process.  Instituting polices that create a safe, connected road network with numerous short links, intersections, and minimal dead-ends will reduce travel distances while increasing options to important destinations for pedestrians and bicyclists.  Likewise, policies that reduce the minimum number of required parking spaces for destinations and increase the cost of parking provide incentives for individuals to switch from their automobile to transit or active forms of travel.

Update zoning ordinances, building codes, and approval processes to encourage compact community design and a tighter mixture of activities which make it possible to work, play, shop and go to school within walking and bicycling distance of people's homes.

Zoning ordinances and building codes are local regulations that prescribe specific land usage and construction restrictions for a project site.  These regulations have created a built environment of separated land uses and automobile-dependent travel.  In order to produce compact, mixed-use walkable communities, local officials must update zoning and building codes to allow for denser development with a greater mix of land uses so that individuals can walk or bike to important destinations.

Improve funding for pedestrian and cycling-oriented capital improvements and public transit.

In order to have a balanced transportation system that promotes not only automobile use but also public transit, walking, and bicycling, adequate funding must be secured to the provide necessary infrastructure.  Capital improvements for pedestrians and cycling can include installing additional sidewalks, multi-use greenways, bike lanes, bike racks, crosswalks, signage, landscaping, and street lighting.  Funding for roads and highways that promote automobile transportation currently dominates transportation expenditures.  In order to improve walking, bicycling and public transit in their jurisdiction, local officials must work to increase their share of federal and state transportation monies so that they may have the financial power to build the necessary improvements to increase these forms of transportation.

Adopt a pedestrian charter to ensure that walking becomes an increasingly safe, comfortable and convenient mode of travel.

A pedestrian charter is a legal contract passed by local officials that outlines the principles and functions to be carried out that will promote walking as an important measure in a city's health, vitality and safety.  By making this commitment, local leaders will be dedicating themselves and their city to providing citizens with a compact, walkable community.  Adopting a pedestrian charter will ensure that walking can co-exist with other modes of travel by making it a safer, more comfortable and convenient way to travel.

Enact ordinances, codes and other policies that encourage owners to build on vacant lots and revitalize vacant properties.

Disincentives to redevelopment contribute to our sprawled communities.  Rather than build on vacant land, owners often choose to develop in a leapfrog pattern, siting new development outside the existing limits of urban development thus leaving vacant land in between.  As this occurs, urban boundaries expand and destinations become further apart, increasing automobile dependency.  Compounding the problem, buildings that become rundown and vacant remain for years after their occupants have left, consuming additional space.  Local leaders can recognize these potential sites for development by enacting regulations that prioritize these lots for new development and revitalization.

Advocate for subdivision ordinances that require accommodations for walking and bicycling.

When designing a residential community, developers subdivide large tracks of land into smaller, individual lots for personal sale.  Enacting subdivision ordinances requiring that a portion of these subdivided lots are reserved for facilities that promote physical activity will ensure that residents have the opportunity to walk and bike close to home.  These land easements should be used to improve the connectivity for pedestrians and bicyclists within the neighborhood.  The reserved land can be used for trails and/or greenways, sidewalks along streets, and trails to link cul-de-sacs.

Participate in local and regional decisions that improve funding and planning for parks, trails, and greenways.

Parks, trails, and greenways are public spaces that can provide a variety of physical activity opportunities through close-to-home recreation and connections to local destinations.  Leaders and advocates must take an active role in the planning process to ensure that their community will provide a successfully mix of parks, trails, and greenways.  Once leaders have guaranteed that an extensive set of parks, trails, and greenways are included in a master plan, advocates and decision makers must secure proper funding for the construction and maintenance of these places.  Potential funding sources include other local leaders, private organizations, state and federal governments, and soliciting local bond referendums and capital improvement plans.

Enhance local school district requirements to ensure that students in grades K-12 participate in daily physical education classes.

As school budgets become tighter and administrators come under increasing pressure to improve test scores, student enrollment in physical education (P.E.) classes has declined.  Also, many adolescents become involved in extra-curricular activities as well as vocational and subject-based classes.  As a result, students are receiving smaller amounts of physical activity during the school day.  To combat this problem, school administrators should enhance current requirements to ensure that all students in grades K-12 will receive 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity each day, through a combination of recess, school-based P.E. classes, or after school sports programs.

Enact policies that make available school physical activity facilities after school hours to students and the public.

In many communities, students do not have a safe and convenient environment for daily physical activity outside.  Elected officials should work with schools, recreation officials and others to enact policies that create schools as community facilities, thus making school physical activity facilities open to students and the public beyond traditional school hours.  School facilities that fall under this category include but are not limited to: gyms, tracks, tennis courts, and soccer and other ball fields.  One strategy for providing students and the public with greater recreational and physical activity opportunities is a joint-use agreement.  Joint-use agreements are arrangements between parks and recreation and school officials to share physical activity facilities so that they may be used for their full potential, including after school hours and weekend and summer vacation times.

Establish worksite policies that encourage employees to be physically active.

In the typical 9 to 5 work day, employees often remain sedentary at a computer desk, receiving only small amounts of physical activity during the work day.  Worksite policies that encourage employees to be physically active can help solve this problem by providing incentives to get workers moving.  One option includes a flex time policy, thus allowing employees an alternative work schedule that will permit them to leave during the work day for physical activity.  Other strategies to boost physical activity of employees could include reimbursing employees for gym memberships, providing incentives to workers for alternative travel commuting, and instituting "walking" meetings.