NOTEBOOK: Downtown gets good reviews for walkability
JOE GARDYASZ Aug 3, 2016 | 4:01 pm
1 min read time
202 wordsAll Latest News, Business Record Insider, The Insider Notebook, TransportationDowntown Des Moines has enviable pedestrian sidewalks and walkways compared with many other urban areas. Now it just has to persuade residents to get out there and use them, says a walkability expert.
I took a drizzly noon-hour walk around downtown on Tuesday with participants of a walkability task force meeting hosted by the Healthiest State Initiative. Among my group of walkers was Thomas Schmid, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency is working with officials from Des Moines and the state of Iowa in developing more walkable communities.
“This project is one of the ways we’re trying to understand how to bring together health with other agencies, because we see physical activity as a win-win,” said Schmid, who works in the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. “The Department of Transportation wants to reduce the number of people in cars; the EPA wants to reduce pollution. Getting people walking is one of the strategies to do that.”
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