More often than not, the outdoor environment of a senior ‘retirement’ community is ignored and people focus on the attributes of a building's interior. However, the activities that can be offered on the outside of a building are almost limitless, constrained only by the imagination, and not by a person's age.
Today there is increased interest in cultivating healthy life styles early in life. This study investigates how neighborhood design might affect the after-school activity levels of adolescent girls.
People walk faster in spaces that are corridor-formed than those that are square formed.
Residential units at floor level add to street appeal.
Research has uncovered several ways that physical environments can encourage people to climb stairs.
While certainly lifestyle choices and other factors influence health, urban planners and landscape architects have long espoused the need for interconnected pedestrian networks to promote public health. Greenways are one strategy to create pedestrian connections.
Many studies have been done on pedestrian motivations, values, and constraints. A recent article concisely summarizes much of the research, and uses it to support a design framework for walkable cities and neighborhoods.
Although studies have shown how neighborhood features can affect the activity of adults, less is known about how these features might affect young adults. Researchers studied the physical activity of Boy Scouts (10–14 years of age) around their Houston homes.
People who visit woodlands more frequently as children are more apt to visit woodland spaces as adults.
Transportation and health experts continue to tout the benefits of walking for exercise and for neighborhood errands. One recent review examines eighteen separate studies on walking to determine common factors in the environment that might help or hinder walking, while another lays out guidelines to help quantify what makes a street or walkway comfortable for pedestrians—laying the groundwork for an assessment tool. Originally published in Issue 4, 2004.