An active community is designed to support people’s everyday physical activity choices.
Physical activity provides numerous health benefits including reducing the risk of over 25 chronic conditions such as:
- cardiovascular disease
- certain types of cancer
- osteoporosis
- diabetes
- obesity
- high blood pressure,
- depression
- stress and anxiety 2
Active Community Design
An active community is a community that is designed to be well connected and where it is easy to use active transportation (human power such as walking, cycling, roller blading, wheel-chairing, public transit, etc.) to get to places such as:
- school
- shopping
- work and
- recreation
Active community design can also:
- reduce the risk of injuries
- improve air quality
- reduce traffic congestion and
- reduce negative impacts on climate change.3 4
Active community design supports active transportation by making connections to the places people want to travel using:
- sidewalks
- multi-use pathways
- on-road cycling facilities
- public transit
