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RESOURCES for PROMOTING TRAILS for HEALTH

There many resources, presentations, and tools available to help promote trails, make the case for a more active America, and encourage trails activists to become involved in fitness issues.

	Trail are a convenient way for Indianapolis residents to exercise outdoors

Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practitioners. Washington: National Center for Bicycling & Walking, May 2002: www.bikewalk.org/ncbw_pubs.php

The Inactivity Epidemic is a presentation that covers this growing health problem, the effect of community design, and things you can do about it: download the presentation (11 mb) and slide library as a .zip file: www.bikewalk.org/pdfs/inactivity.ZIP.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has many resources on increasing physical activity:

• http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/index.htm

Designing Infrastructure for Active Living Living includes physical activity policy research, community design, obesity trend maps, review of surveys, Active Community Environments, and public support for walking/bicycling improvements:

• Part 1 - The Problem and Obesity Trends (pdf 1.0 mb)
• Part 2 - Planning and Promotion (pdf 1.2 mb)
• Part 3 - Transportation and Community Design (pdf 1.1 mb)

American Planning Association has a Briefing Paper on How Cities Use Parks to Improve Public Health (pdf 1.2 mb), 2003

Physical Activity and Public Health from Active Living by Design outlines the inactivity problem, current trends, and action

Public Lands for the Public's Health: Could Georgia Use Its Parks for the Public Health?, by Richard A. Goodman and Marc L. Miller, from Environmental Law Institute, March 2003

The American Journal of Health Promotion has articles relevant to trails and outdoor exercise:

• Recreating Communities to Support Active Living: A New Role for Social Marketing (pdf 104 kb), by Edward W. Maibach, September/October 2003
• Neighborhood Environment, Access to Places for Activity, and Leisure-time Physical Activity in a Diverse North Carolina Population (pdf 132 kb), by Sara L. Huston, Kelly R. Evenson, Philip Bors, Ziya Gizlice
• Walking and Bicycling: An Evaluation of Environmental Audit Instruments, (pdf 234 kb) Anne Vernez Moudon, Chanam Lee

A presentation from Shape Up America by Barbara J. Moore: Leveraging Health for Effective Pedestrian Advocacy (pdf 696kb) includes slides of increasing obesity by state in America

The Trust for America's Health has a hard-hitting report on F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America

Tools from The University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center:

• Environmental Supports for Physical Activity Questionnaire
• Recreation Facility Evaluation Tool
• Sidewalk Assessment Tool
• Evaluating Community Coalition Characteristics and Functioning
• The Compendium of Physical Activities
• International Physical Activity Questionnaire
• Heart Healthy & Ethnically Relevant (HHER) Tools
• Directory of Reviewed Physical Activity Promotional Materials

HEALTH COMMUNITY: What You Should Know About Trail Building

More help with Trails & Health:

• Programs
• Resources
• Projects and studies

Related topics:

Accessible trails
Benefits of trails
Bike/Ped facilities
Economics
Greenways
Planning
Rails to Trails

More resources:

Cool trail solutions
Bibliography
Quotations
Glossary
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Tools
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For more opportunities for training on trail design, construction, and management see the National Trails Training Partnership area.