Community Plans
Community Plans set long-term goals and guide decision-making. Because these documents establish a vision for the future, they can be a very powerful tool in shaping the health of a community.
Transportation or Circulation Plan: A required element of a Comprehensive Plan (Learn more about Comprehensive Plans), the transportation and circulation element provides information on how a community can invest in transportation to improve resident mobility. These plans represent the long-term vision for how local public rights of way will be built and reconstructed as well as the transportation services that will be provided for residents.
The open space chapter of a Master Plan can encourage the creation of greenways and bikeway networks, or promote a safe routes to parks process.
Bike and Pedestrian Plans provide a means for a community to develop a coordinated strategy for the development and promotion of walking and cycling infrastructure.
Open Space and Recreation Plans represent a community's plan for its conservation and recreation resources. Parks and recreation can influence transportation by fostering landscapes, parks, recreational programming and other design decisions that encourage active transportation.
iCreating networks of trails, greenways, parks, and recreation areas in residential and commercial areas as well as establishing bicycle racks, helmet loan programs and installing pedestrian lighting are all some of the ways in which the public parks and recreation enables active transportation.iiParking Assessment and Management Plans provide an accurate inventory of parking availability and use to plan for current and future parking demand and provision. Parking policies have an enormous impact on the built environment, particularly how space in and along roadways are allocated, and how various transportation options are provided to residents.
Community Health Needs Assessments and Age Friendly Needs Assessments identify key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis (Learn more about Needs Assessments).
If your community is working on a community plan:
Ensure representation on steering or advisory committee including those that can speak to public health, as well as low-income, BIPOC, older adults and people with disabilities.
Identify and introduce public health research on community health insights that capture the health and transportation connection.
Secure agreement for explicit reference to transportation as a determinant of health.
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