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Active Living
"Active Living" is simply the integration of healthy physical activity into daily life. Initiatives to promote Active Living must recognize the essential connection between public health and community design. The  layout and design of streets, buildings, and public spaces can either promote or discourage physical activity. Where walking and bicycling are safe and convenient, people are more active; when people get more exercise, they are generally healthier.
According to the Active Living Network (1), an environment conducive to active living:
- is walkable
- supports, encourages, and promotes physical activity
- is designed to support compact development, mixed use, accessibility, and public transit
- locates activities of daily living within walking distance along an interconnected network of streets, sidewalks, and paths, thereby increasing incentives for walking and decreasing driving
- has sidewalks, on-street bicycle facilities, multi-use paths and trails, parks, open space, and recreational facilities
- promotes policies that encourage mixed-use development and a connected grid of streets, allowing homes, work, schools, and stores to be close together and accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists
- makes it easy, convenient, and pleasurable to be physically active 30 minutes a day, three to five times a week
 To encourage Active Living, South Carolina must improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and accessibility. Unfortunately, our land use and funding policies have spawned communities where cars are essential for accomplishing one’s daily tasks. Our auto-dependence forces our citizens to pay the long-term costs of road maintenance, air pollution from automobile emissions, water pollution from road runoff, and health care due to physical inactivity. While automobiles will certainly remain the primary mode of transportation for much of our population, our state and local officials must also consider the impact of their decisions on pedestrians and cyclists. Changing our auto-centric policies is imperative for improving our health, safety and quality of life:
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South Carolina has the tenth highest rate of pedestrian fatalities (2.6 per 100,000 residents) in the nation(2) and the ninth highest rate of bicyclist fatalities (2.9 per 1,000,000 residents(3)) in 2003.
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The pedestrian is a second-rate citizen in South Carolina when it comes to transportation funding. South Carolina ranks fifth to last among all states in the percentage of federal transportation dollars invested in pedestrian and bicycle safety (0.2%).(4)
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The national average (1998-2003) of expenditures on bicycle and pedestrian safety is 82 cents per person. In South Carolina, it is only 21 cents, and in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson region, it is an abysmal 2 cents per person. (5)
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Only one percent of South Carolina workers sixteen years and older walked to work in 2003. (6)
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58 percent of all trips under one-half mile are made by car in South Carolina. (7)
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Obesity rates in South Carolina are among the highest in the country. In 2002, 25.8% of the state’s population was obese; this is nearly twice the 1990 obesity rate of 13.6%.(8) An additional 32.7% of South Carolinians were overweight in 2002. (9)
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People who are overweight or obese have an increased prevalence of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, some types of cancer, asthma, sleep apnea, arthritis, gall bladder disease, depression, and complications in pregnancy. (10)
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Walking 10 blocks per day or more is associated with a 33 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease among women. (11)
 Upstate Forever is currently undertaking an Active Living Initiative in Spartanburg, and we encourage other Upstate communities to initiate such programs. Hopefully, one day soon more citizens in our region will be able to walk or bike to work, school, and errands…conserving natural resources while simultaneously improving their health!
Be sure to check these sections of our website!
Additional Information:
- Speaker talks about environment's link to health of those in the community
August 19, 2006
by Lane Filler of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal
- Nonprofit Strives to Promote 'Active Living̵'
Spartanburg Herald-Journal, August 11, 2005
- Residents Want Sidewalks to Somewhere in Tomorrow’s Clemson
The Greenville News, August 26,2003
- Expert: Walkability Doesn’t Have to Cost and Arm and a Leg
Spartanburg Herald-Journal, March 12, 2003
- Dan Burden Rocks the Upstate!
Upstate Advocate, June 2003
- SCDOT Rescinds Commitment to Fund Pedestrian Coordinator;
Americans Want More Places to Walk and Bike
Upstate Update 44, May, 2003
- City, Suburban Designs Could be Bad for Your Health
USA Today, April 22, 2003
- Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl
Report by Smart Growth America and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, 2003
- Walkable Communities, Inc.
- Partners for Active Living
- Active Living Network
- National Center for Bicycling and Walking
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
- Active Living Resource Center
- Safe Routes to Schools
- South Carolina Department of Transportation Bicycle and Pedestrian Program
- Designing Heart-Healthy Communities
Newsweek, October 3, 2005
Notes
1 Active Living Network. Retrieved August 13, 2005.
2 Mean Streets 2004, Surface Transportation Policy Project. Retrieved August 11, 2005.
3 S.C. Department of Transportation. The Need for Bike and Pedestrian Facilities, 2003. Retrieved August 14, 2005.
4 Mean Streets 2004 “State Fact Sheets.” Surface Transportation Policy Project. Retrieved August 11, 2005.
5 Mean Streets 2004, Surface Transportation Policy Project. Retrieved August 11, 2005.
6 2003 American Community Survey, United States Census. Retrieved August 11, 2005.
7 U.S. Department of Transportation, National Household Survey, 2001.
8 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Retrieved August 14, 2005.
9 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Retrieved August 14, 2005.
10 U.S. Surgeon General. Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences, 2001. Retrieved August 14, 2005.
11 Sesso, H.D., et al., Physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk in middle-aged and older women. American Journal of Epidemiology. August 15, 1999.
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