Other Work on Health by the Design for Health (DFH) Team

Several Direct Design Assistance projects involve pedestrian planning or walkability. Other projects related to healthy cities include:

Non-motorized Pilot Project Evaluation (2006-)
the Metropolitan Design Center is helping evaluate the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Project (NTPP)
Design for Health (2006-)
This is the project site for Design for Health as well as a resource site of issues of health and urban design.
Active Living PowerPoints and Self-Guided Tours (2005)
Prepared for the 2005 Planners Network Conference, these PowerPoints and tours introduce professionals and laypersons to active-living concepts.
GIS Protocols (2005-)
Building on the work of the Twin Cities Walking Study the Metropolitan Design Center has developed protocols for measuring the built environment using GIS. These protocols focus on environmental features that affect walking.
Twin Cities Walking Study (2003-06)
The relationship of the environment and physical activity is in the news. This two-year study is measuring the walkability of different environments. While social and economic characteristics are generally found to be more important predictors of whether people will walk than physical factors, the environment does make some difference. The research team will be measuring how much of a difference and which factors are key.
Community Design: Moving to Combat Obesity Workshop (2004)
The Metropolitan Design Center prepared a toolkit for this conference.