Active Transportation

Active transportation is essentially walking, rolling, cycling, and in many cases, using public transportation to get to a destination. We include public transportation in our definition of active transportation as for the majority of users, some sort of active transportation is required on either end of public transit uses - one must walk, roll, or cycle to a bus/train stop, take the bus/train, and then do the same to get to their destination from the stop they arrive at.

Active transportation is improved significantly with investments in protected & separate infrastructure for vulnerable road users (protected bike lanes; wide, raised sidewalks; physical barriers separating bike lanes and sidewalks from vehicular traffic - such as cement barriers or planters). A whole community exists around "All Ages and Abilities" networked active transportation infrastructure. The best thing is - making safety improvements not only reduces deaths, but significantly improves ridership (NACTO).

It is important to note that besides the individual benefits (health, money, etc.) active transportation brings, cities benefit significantly from investments in these modes. These modes (walking, rolling, cycling, transit), are better for people, better for communities, better for the environment, better for business... and often relegated to 10% or less of a municipalities "transportation" budget (transportation in quotations because how many people do cars really "transport" efficiently for the money governments subsidize them for).

If walking costs you $1, society pays $0.1; If biking costs you $1, society pays $0.08; If busing costs you $1, society pays $1.5; if driving costs you $1, society pays $9.20

Active transportation is also very much an issue/topic that is at the forefront of justice, whether economic, racial, gender, or environmental. Active transportation should be prioritized in a mode hierarchy such as the following (source unknown):

Hierarchy showing pedestrians on top, followed by cyclists, public transit users, freight deliveries, and finally the private automobile users. A way to measure which modes are most desired for progressive communities.

Here are some fantastic resources to check out on the topic of Active Transportation:

Active transportation is a concept we're extremely proud of and huge fans of at the YIMBY Shop. In fact, it's the foundation for many of our designs - why not check them out?