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Place Matters presenter: Active transportation improves health equity

October 22, 2018

Charles Brown says ideas like ‘complete streets policies’ can reduce crime

PORTLAND, Ore.--For Charles Brown, active transportation investments--which emphasize creation of facilities that allow people to be physically active while getting from one place to another—improve the health of our communities and promotes social justice.

"Achieving health equity--or achieving equity period--doesn’t mean there are winners and losers," says Brown, a senior researcher with the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center and adjunct professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, both at Rutgers University. "There can be winners and winners. But we can’t all be winners if we’re not giving people what they need to enjoy a full, healthy life."

Brown, a featured speaker at the 2018 Oregon Place Matters Conference in Portland later this month, believes at the heart of the active transportation concept is a larger goal of making all places equitable and accessible, which creates health for everyone.

"One of the things you’re going to hear me emphasize during my talk is the importance of recognizing people in a place, and that nothing matters more than the people in that place," he says, "and how our differences can be used to strengthen that place and turn it into a place that allows everyone to live their lives how they see fit."

That includes removing barriers to mobility, a term that includes walking, bicycling, skateboarding, taking public transit or using e-bikes or e-scooters.

Place Matters, a biennial conference addressing the leading drivers of chronic disease and health care costs, is Oct. 29-30 at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Nationally recognized speakers and conference sessions will cover a variety of strategies employed in Oregon and around the country for making health accessible to all people. The Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division sponsors the event through its Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Section. Brown’s plenary on Monday, Oct. 29, is titled "Justice or Just Us: Creating a Shared Vision for Equitable Places."

Brown has published research on the link between social factors and access to opportunities that allow people to be healthy. He recently co-authored a study published in the journal Health & Place that examined how violent crime affects the amount of time people walk during the day and at night for recreation and transportation on a typical day. It showed "even if people walk more in high-crime areas because of nearby destinations and lack of alternatives, crime may still have an adverse effect on walking, meaning that people in those neighborhoods would have walked even more if not for high crime."

"Complete street policies" and "Crime Prevention Through Environment Design (CPTED)" practices are noted strategies that improve safety and mobility, Brown says. Where "complete streets" ensures that all streets are designed, operated and maintained "with all users in mind," CPTED takes it a step further to ensure that the physical design and maintenance of infrastructure deters crime instead of serving as a conduit for it, Brown says.

"Too often crime is attributed to individual behavior instead of the socio-political context that allows crime to flourish, particularly in low income and communities of color," he says.

For information, visit the 2018 Oregon Place Matters Conference website.

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 Media contact

Delia Hernández

OHA External Relations

503-422-7179

phd.communications@dhsoha.state.or.us

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