Healthy Communities release walkability plan

Healthy Communities, in partnership with the City of Columbus-Bartholomew County Planning Department, is pursuing strategies to increase walkability throughout the community.

Laura Garrett, Healthy Communities spokesperson, says that 51.3 percent of Bartholomew County residents do not meet the daily recommendations of walking set by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She adds that “adults living in highly walkable neighborhoods engage in 41 minutes more physical activity per week than those in low-walkability neighborhoods.”

Garrett says that last October, the team hired the Walkable and Livable Communities (WALC) Institute to facilitate a two-day Active Living Workshop to help determine what could be done to make streets and neighborhoods “more walkable, livable, healthy and sustainable.”

Garrett says that the WALC Institute recently released the final report from their visit, entitled: Columbus, Indiana: Walking Towards Greatness. She says that this 71-page report includes comprehensive information about a range of active living concepts, observations and recommendations for Columbus. Garrett says this report also includes a plan for 25th Street. She explains that the plan “helps paint a vision for the opportunities gained when we transform our streets into places for people, not solely vehicles.”

For more information, including a link to the report, visit the Go Healthy website at www.gohealthycolumbus.org.