Embracing placemaking to create equitable access to health and economic mobility is key to everyday livability; compelling cities are designed from the sidewalk up and the opportunity for compassionate connections is essential to the narrative of life.
EVERYDAY LIVABILITY ZONE
We will have better streets when the activities of daily living and caring are designed to be accessible from our door step. Compelling cities are designed from the sidewalk up and communities thrive feet first.
Livability describes the conditions that create a community’s quality of life—including the built and natural environments, economic prosperity, social stability and equity, health probability, educational opportunity, and cultural, entertainment and recreation possibilities.
Thoughtful city planning is about creating a village—zoning for walkable mixed-use districts, diverse housing stock, density for reducing commutes and crime, appealing multi-modal transit, placemaking for outdoor exercise, kid friendly places and shared spaces to combat isolation and encourage kindness. Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Both a process and a philosophy, how public spaces are designed is key to the success of the social experience.
Health probability sums up systemic influences on physical and mental well-being and the likelihood of their impacts. Health is personal, health is public, and when it comes to livability, health is intersectional. From our gene code to our zip code, our planet to our policies, our relationship to ourselves and others, and the epigenetics of our experiences, many factors contribute to living a healthy life.
“Understanding the role cities play in shaping our daily lives, I discuss environmental design principles that make public spaces somewhere to look forward to; hoping to inspire placemaking that creates access to the healthy living patterns that enrich our common humanity.”
Mobility is defined as the potential for movement and the ability to get from one place to another using one or more modes of transport to meet daily needs. The combination of complete streets and public transportation provides the opportunity to choose from multiple transportation options when making decisions about how to go about your day. Those seeking access to independence without a car are provided with equitable opportunities to travel by their preferred method, and are treated equally within an urban context. And micromobility lanes do more than placemake for bikes—they are important infrastructure for autonomy. Electric wheelchairs and scooters benefit from protected bike lanes as well. No matter how you roll through life, having a designated safe space to do so is an important aspect of inclusivity.
Establishing the context for agency not only improves the physical health of a population, it also widens the generational variety of a city. Whether commuting, touring, or recreating, biking around town is an expression of freedom and fitness for people of all ages. Sidewalks are also transportation corridors for wheelchairs, walkers and strollers, and their widths and surface areas should encourage their presence. Using the phenomenon known as induced demand for means and methods that lead to a healthier society, namely public transit, protected bike lanes, landscaped running lanes and accessible sidewalks, is a step in the right direction.
“As a personal trainer and environmental designer, I’m aware that people are most physically active when their environments are both highly walkable and very green. I recognize the links between health and urban development and that complete street design influences the health probability of society by removing barriers to physical activity.”
PEDESTRIAN ZONE
Planning public space with pedestrian access to third places creates the opportunity for social serendipity. Just as nature thrives on a balance of order and chaos, having both delineated avenues and undefined free streets can bring out the best in urban living.
Walkability is the entry point for access to active living. Walking is the most accessible form of exercise, with many health benefits, and walkable cities are the most acceptable form of tourism, with many economic benefits. It is a public good to develop built environments that remove barriers to physical activity, and placemaking for outdoor exercise fills an important gap in everyday livability. Space to walk and a place to talk remind us that we all do better with care. Opportunities to develop and maintain personal fitness and support mental respite are hallmarks of a healthy society and part of a necessary planning strategy at the heart of meeting daily physical activity needs. There needs to be acceptable, accessible and affordable introductions to exercise and very few solutions beat having walking, running and biking lanes right out your front door and lining streets of the urban core.
Pedestrian avenues, trail networks and green spaces are critical infrastructure for supporting personal health, public health and planet health. In addition to improving environmental quality in an area, placemaking for outdoor exercise is a proven way to influence the health probability and economic elevation of a neighborhood. Well designed and maintained public park spaces can also better public health and safety by reducing crime and improving societal well-being by serving as an antidote to isolation. Linear trails and park perimeter trails are also effective design solutions for providing pedestrian options for transportation and recreation in a community. Noted for their visibility and connectivity to surrounding spaces, these trail systems are a simple way to bring the peace of the park to the stress of the streets.
“Design is problem solving for people and physical activity is part of everyday life. Creating the right infrastructure woven thoughtfully into sidewalk design is the bold placemaking move needed for the well-being of us all.”
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ZONE
Acknowledging the different speeds with which walkers, runners and cyclists travel is a fundamental reason to give each their own lane in order to create a safer and more inclusive exercise experience.
Exercise, generally, and running, specifically, plays an important role in chronic disease prevention and management. Because placemaking along pathways and greenways greatly influences physical activity, when we talk about hiking and biking, let’s talk about running too. Getting your heart rate up is a key component of physical fitness and running is the most straightforward way to do this for most people. Aerobic exercise is a vital part of a balanced active lifestyle and when this important physical activity is left out of the conversation we fail to make a place for it.
Access to a safe place to run is a planning strategy missing within complete streets and park design. Acknowledging the different speeds with which walkers, runners and cyclists travel is a fundamental reason to give each their own lane in order to create a safer and more inclusive exercise experience. For example: walkers typically travel 3 mph, runners at 6 mph and cyclists at 12 mph. Shared paths are like a street without lane lines allowing vehicles traveling 30 mph, 60 mph and 120 mph to occupy the same road at the same time. Placemaking for running serves as an activity invitation, protected from the swift speeds of bikes and slow speeds of walkers, and is part of pedestrian shed planning for meeting daily physical activity needs.
Runnability is a measure of how friendly an area is to running. Designing streets, parks and trail systems with designated running lanes improves the runnability of a city and can profoundly influence health probability as well. Designated lanes for runners influence the likelihood someone would go for a run by providing access to a safe space to exercise, promoting life saving physical activity while reducing the potential conflict of shared paths. Going for a run is easier to do when the planning department includes placemaking for running in the pedestrian experience. Running lanes are healthcare infrastructure and providing them, where width allows, is a way to use urban planning to support healthy habits. Initiatives that succeed in increasing aerobic fitness at the population level could have a huge impact on public healthcare costs.
Reimagining the public realm to shape healthy living patterns by using runnability as a design approach can be a starting place for small scale interventions in public health that have the capacity to make a large impact. So when we plan for walkable and bikeable, let's plan for runnable too. Health starts outside the clinic, and it’s time to bring the parks to the streets. Creating the right infrastructure woven thoughtfully into sidewalk design is the bold placemaking move needed for the well-being of us all.
“Strength training is an essential skill for developing a healthy body and mind, and making the city your gym is an accessible practice when cities invest in outdoor gym solutions.”
Moving workouts outdoors is an important trend that is here to stay. Fresh air, sunshine and social serendipity bring happiness and hope to exercise environments. From personal health and fitness goals to healthy aging, playgrounds and fitness parks play a vital role in making those dreams a reality. Strength training is an essential skill for developing a healthy body and mind, and making the city your gym is an accessible practice when cities invest in outdoor gym solutions.
Access to a safe place to play is often overlooked in urban design. Understanding how important playgrounds are for the physical and social development of children is vital and should inform park locations, designs, and the safe pathways of travel to them. Kids need someplace to go to meet friends, blow off steam, and enjoy the myriad benefits of unstructured free play as a regular part of childhood. Playground adjacencies to schools, community centers, libraries, and multi-family housing are crucial, and can serve as buffers for time and space between activities and while caregivers are at work. Designated space for children is not only an invitation to play, it communicates that children are welcome, included, and are an important part of the community.
Placemaking for playgrounds can profoundly influence the health probability of children by instilling the healthy habits and joy of physical activity early on in childhood development – experiences that in all likelihood will influence the exercise choices of adulthood. Exercising can positively affect DNA, as well as impact epigenetic trajectories for lifespan. So, when talking about placemaking for outdoor fitness, we need to talk about designs for teenagers, adults, and access to active aging. Design is problem solving for people and physical activity is part of everyday life. The active design of recreation sites encourages play and activity for people of all ages, interests, and abilities.
Outdoor fitness parks, multisport arenas, obstacle courses, and exercise equipment for seniors provide access to training without the restraints of a gym membership. They improve physical fitness, social fitness, and mental well-being, as well as celebrate the benefits of fitness throughout lifespan. Municipalities looking to improve population fitness, aging fitness, and first responder fitness can provide location-smart parks to provide opportunities for meaningful workouts and build community resilience.
“Physical fitness and social fitness are essential aspects of common humanity. They’re how we check in. Space to walk and a place to talk remind us that we all do better with care. Planning public space with pedestrian access to third places creates the opportunity for physical and social serendipity. So, when we talk infrastructure, let’s talk social infrastructure too.”
SOCIAL FITNESS ZONE
Compassionate connections are essential to the narrative of life and a cornerstone of mental health and happiness. Checking in with friends, meeting new people and expanding our options and outlooks through shared public space builds community, offers hope, and supports resilience.
Cities are about connecting. From helping us get from point A to point B, to introducing us to the people we see, cities join us along our journey. The design of our built environments can influence our perspectives, our possibilities, our capacity for empathy and make the necessary space for more voices. The opportunity to create community where we live is often hindered by the design and culture of privatizing public space. We travel from home to car to work and back without the serendipity of meeting people in the in-between—it doesn’t exist anymore.
So, when we talk infrastructure, let’s talk social infrastructure too. Compassionate connections are essential to the narrative of life and a cornerstone of mental health and happiness. Checking in with friends, meeting new people and expanding our options and outlooks through shared public space builds community, offers hope, and supports resilience. Vibrant social networks are important for our cognitive health and can provide a psychological safety net for tough times. Social fitness is similar to physical fitness, not only in its definition of capacity, but that it too requires effort, intervals, and consistency over time to develop and maintain its effectiveness.
Physical fitness and social fitness are essential aspects of common humanity. Planning public space with pedestrian access to third places creates the opportunity for physical and social serendipity. Just as nature thrives on a balance of order and chaos, having both delineated avenues and undefined free streets can bring out the best in urban living.
The same way connections for friendships are an important part of well-being, so are connections for employment. Placemaking for economic mobility through mixed use development, adaptive design and balancing macro and microspaces for business owners provides opportunities for discovery and self advancement. Understanding the role cities play in shaping our daily lives and the impact they have on caring, caregiving and caretaking, and how those needs can be met by urban planning, is essential for generating a more inclusive workforce. Developments that include facilities for child care, elder care and health care can make it logistically and physically possible for more people to participate in the economy—elevating more families financially, improving their physical and social well-being, and respecting the full spectrum of lifespan. Creating an ecosystem of care is imperative for creating a culture of connection.
“We will have better streets when the activities of daily living and caring are designed to be accessible from our door step. Compelling cities are designed from the sidewalk up and communities thrive feet first.”
COMMON HUMANITY ZONE
Creating an ecosystem of care is imperative for creating a culture of connection. City planning is at its best when it uses placemaking to create access to the healthy living patterns that enrich our common humanity.
The idea is to design plans and policies that support the basic needs of people. Transportation systems, economic stability, and access to parks and trails are all links between health and urban development that improve quality of life. The availability and affordability of housing, fresh food, education and healthcare are investments in human capital. Soft ecosystems, rewilding, relationship building and trauma-informed placemaking likewise affect the mental health of a community. Zoning creates the framework for how a city makes you feel, what you can do and who can belong. City planning is at its best when it uses placemaking to create access to the healthy living patterns that enrich our common humanity.
Vibrant cities have generational variety and keeping that perspective in mind at the design table improves planning outcomes. Society needs youth-welcoming businesses and public spaces that will improve aesthetics, activities and safety. Aging in place locations can be designed within neighborhood communities rather than in isolated ones, and family planning should be reflected in urban planning with housing options and safe paths to schools and recreation centers. We all need someplace to go, something to do and somewhere to belong; whether we are eight or eighty. The city is for everyone and the design of its built environments should communicate that.
We will have better streets when the activities of daily living and caring are designed to be accessible from our door step. It’s about fresh air, clean water and shaded paths. It's about placemaking for people with respect to the methods and speeds with which they travel. It's about public health and safety. It’s about equitable economic mobility. It’s about generational variety. It’s about connecting. Compelling cities are designed from the sidewalk up and communities thrive feet first.