This article from a journal on preventing chronic disease outlines strategies to promote active communities in the present culture. The authors note that efforts to improve health outcomes through behavioral modification are often complicated by external factors that may thwart success and introduce potential harm. Many policies and interventions target streets as multifunctional settings for active transportation and physical activity because they are modifiable public infrastructures that most residents use daily. However, factors associated with traffic safety present a contemporary challenge to efforts to promote physical activity. One example is the difficulty of encouraging pedestrian-based physical activity because of the growing prevalence of distracted driving. The ongoing public health movement encouraging people to walk and bicycle is complicated by technological movements that provide Americans with ever more distractions. The authors call for multidisciplinary collaboration among public health, urban development and planning, traffic safety, and representatives of other related fields, including the communications technology sector and commercial automotive industry. Immediate efforts are also needed to educate both the pedestrian and the driver, with the intent to modify unsafe behaviors and to continue improving unsafe street environments. Keywords: Driver distraction;
Language: en
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