NLC Webinar: What's Walking Got to do With it?: A Look at the Economic and Social Impact of Walkability
Date: June 19, 2014
Time: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Register here.
Walking is a critical component of our country’s urban transportation system and a practical transportation choice with powerful benefits for both individuals and their communities. The potential for increased walking is enormous: one quarter of all trips in the United States are less than one mile in length, but only a quarter of these are made by walking. Providing more walking facilities helps enhance access to other modes of travel, improves air quality and other environmental benefits, and contributes to health and other quality of life factors.
The National League of Cities will be hosting a webinar with America Walks and Smart Growth America to look at how increasing walkability has had an impact in Columbia, MO and Arlington County, VA. Local officials will discuss the economic and social benefits their communities have seen and how they have gone about to get public support and the financing in place to build pedestrian facilities. The speakers will address the role federal dollars have played in their pedestrian-related initiatives and the importance of them in leveraging funding from other sources to build walking projects that are meeting the needs of their communities, advance social, economic, and environmental goals.
Speakers:
- Chris Zimmerman, Vice President for Economic Development, Smart Growth America and former Board Member, Arlington County, Virginia
- Council Member Ian Thomas, PhD, City of Columbia, Missouri and Board Member, America Walks