Document outlines how to incorporate safety into active living designs

Baltimore – Plans to change a community’s environment to increase physical activity should incorporate safety, according to a new document from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Built Environment and Healthy Housing Program, and the Society for Public Health Education.

Designers, architects, planners, engineers and public health professionals are encouraged to use the document, stated a Johns Hopkins press release. Examples of strategies outlined in "Active Design Supplement: Promoting Safety" include:

• Ensure trails and pathways are designed to safely accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and other users.
• Use injury-reducing surface materials on activity spaces such as playgrounds.
• Establish delineated lanes on roadways and sidewalks for different forms of transportation to encourage safe pedestrian and cyclist use.
• Install four-sided safety fences at public pools.