A WIN FOR EVERYONE:
Fort Worth’s Active Transportation Plan Earns Statewide Award
Fort Worth has taken great strides toward making it easier for residents to get around – and it’s getting noticed. The city’s new Active Transportation Plan—developed with the support of Blue Zones Project—has been recognized with the Gold Award for Transportation Planning by the American Planning Association Texas Chapter for outstanding efforts to increase transportation choices for all residents, reduce dependence on personal cars, ease traffic congestion, and lower climate change impact.
The city approved the Active Transportation Plan earlier this year. The plan is a key element of a community-led commitment to make Fort Worth one of the nation’s healthiest cities. As part of Fort Worth’s path to earning national certification as a Blue Zones Community—one where practices and policies reflect lifestyles of the world’s longest living people—city leaders set out to increase and improve walking routes, bike trails and lanes, and connections to public transportation.
To facilitate that work, the Blue Zones Project team shared best practices for active transportation. Blue Zones Project also played a key role in bringing on board the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which awarded Fort Worth a $250,000 grant for the plan’s development.
The process involved analyzing each block and intersection in Fort Worth, looking at existing infrastructure—such as sidewalks and crosswalks—and other aspects of the built environment. City staff also considered equity factors, including an area’s ethnic makeup, socioeconomics and number of local residents with disabilities.
Dan Burden, Blue Zones Project’s resident expert on the built environment, and other members of the Blue Zones Project team assisted in drafting the plan based on the findings. In addition, Blue Zones Project participated in community interviews to gain greater insight into the challenges and opportunities related to active transportation.
The result of all those efforts is a prioritized list of sidewalk, trail, bike lane, and connectivity projects. The plan also details a funding and implementation strategy and includes a design guide to ensure maximum safety and usability. The goal is to make active transportation options available to all the people of Fort Worth—ultimately making the city’s entire transportation system more efficient while simultaneously helping residents improve their well-being. That’s a win for everyone.