• How physical activity, land use, transportation, and zoning intersect

    Zoning rarely gets discussed as directly related to health, but communities that have reformed their codes see health benefits, from reduced rates of cancer to greater physical activity—which in turn lowers disease and improves mental health.
    In an On the Park Bench webinar, Jamie Chriqui, PhD, reports on the intersection of physical activity, land use and transportation, and zoning. This matters because half of the US population is physically inactive (more prevalent in the Sunbelt), and inactive people are far more likely to have...Read more

  • Zoning that supports physical activity rising in the US

    A longitudinal study found a 53 percent increase in new urbanist type zoning in the US during the previous decade, and support for infrastructure that boosts physical activity, and ultimately, health.
    New-urbanist-type zoning codes rose 53 percent across the US over the previous decade, according to research by the CDC-funded Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (PAPREN). Across the board, this type of zoning promotes more sidewalks, mixed-use, bicycle-pedestrian trails,...Read more

  • Coding for better places

    Zoning reform tools can enable better places, affordable housing, and complete communities, according to a discussion on CNU's On the Park Bench.
    Overhauling an entire zoning code is an expensive and complicated lift requiring political will that makes it prohibitive to many communities. With the help of CNU’s Project for Code Reform (PCR), more and more places are learning how to make these changes incrementally. PCR says, “if you do...Read more

  • Erasing the Arbitrary Lines of zoning

    Nolan Gray joins CNU's On the Park Bench for a discussion of zoning, its history and problems, and what to do about it.
    Author Nolan Gray summarizes the most talked-about book on zoning, maybe ever— Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City, and How to Fix It — in a discussion on CNU's On the Park Bench. Gray describes a dramatic change in recent years on how the public views zoning, which went from a...Read more