Sioux Falls Gets Nod in National White Paper on Walking in America

Dec 01, 2014

One of the goals of Live Well Sioux Falls is to promote safe, convenient and accessible places to walk and bike throughout our community. Nationally, there is a growing trend focusing on walking as part of developing physically and economically fit communities.

America Walks is a national organization with this same goal in mind. Recently, the America Walks website featured a new report by author and speaker Jay Walljasper titled Walking is Going Places. 

We were excited to read the report, not only for its insight into how walkability promotes individual health and economic vitality, but also because the Sioux Falls Health Department had a cameo appearance in the report for our participation in the first-ever national Walking Summit in 2013.

Walljasper's report includes this quote from Mark Fenton, who has twice visited Sioux Falls to talk about the importance of a connected, walkable community.

“Two things seem to resonating for businesses about the importance of walkability - how to attract the best workforce and wanting to locate in communities where health costs are lower,” says Fenton, a former US National Team race walker who now consults on public health planning and transportation. "Employees with more opportunities to walk at work and at home are healthier, meaning lower insurance rates for their firms."

Thomas Schmid from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had this to say about the connection between healthy people and healthy business: “If a business is located in a community that is not healthy, they’re paying more to be there. Think of it as a tax or cost of doing business because of health care costs.”

Live Well Sioux Falls is proud to be leading the community conversation about walkability and grateful for the many partners who have joined us to create a more active, vibrant and livable city.