Active Community Environments are places where people of all ages and abilities can easily enjoy walking, bicycling, and other forms of recreation. Priority recommendations include utilization of urban planning, transportation policy and infrastructure changes to promote non-motorized transportation, as well as enhancement of safety and perceived safety of communities.

The descriptions below illustrate what organizations and communities are doing to support active community environments.



The Active Community Environments subcommittee goal is to establish capacity for grass roots efforts in support of transportation policies and infrastructure changes.
Target audience: Seniors, city planners, policy makers, and public works and transportation agency personnel.

Evaluation: Measurement of current policies as compared to eventual changes in policy

Partners: The King County Physical Activity Coalition, Washington State Department of Health, Public Health-Seattle & King County, Mount Vernon Healthy Communities Project, UW Health Promotion Research Center, STEPS Program.

Lead agency role: Washington Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity is a statewide coalition of individuals and organizations from the public and private sectors working in partnerships to promote regular physical activity to enhance health, fitness and quality of life for Washington residents in accordance with public health recommendations.
For more information:
Shannon Turner
Tel: 206-412-1037
Web: http://www.beactive.org



A group of community volunteers has built trails, published a map of trails, and organized a workshop to bring residents together to discuss and advocate for walking and biking.

Target audience: The residents of Port Townsend, including all ages and ability groups

Evaluation: Not yet in place.

Partners: The City of Port Townsend, Disability Awarness Starts Here (DASH), Jefferson County government, Jefferson transit, and the Department of Transportation
Lead agency role: The Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Board of Port Townsend is building a coalition to work on improving the physical environment in the city to facilitate and promote walking and biking, and making environmental improvements such as sidewalks, crosswalks, trails, and bike paths.

For more information:
 Marion Huxtable
Tel: 360-379-9527


This publication was supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number U58/CCU019291 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.


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