America's Top Doctor Calls for U.S. To Make Walking a "National Priority"

by Carolyn Szczepanski on September 10, 2015


Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy USPHSAccording to America's top doctor, it's time to #StepItUp. To address the staggering rise in chronic diseases and reverse trends that have engineered physical activity out of the lives of too many Americans, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a new report with five ambitious goals intended to mobilize millions.

Issued yesterday, Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities is "intended to increase walking across the United States by calling for improved access to safe and convenient places to walk and wheelchair roll, as well as for a culture that supports these activities for people of all ages and abilities."

Framing that call to action, the Surgeon General proposes five goals:

  • Goal 1: Make walking a national priority
  • Goal 2: Design communities that make it safe and easy to walk for people of all ages and abilities
  • Goal 3: Promote programs and policies to support walking where people live, learn, work, and play
  • Goal 4: Provide information to encourage walking and improve walkability
  • Goal 5: Fill surveillance, research, and evaluation gaps related to walking and walkability

Bolstering those five goals, the Call to Action also includes "implementation strategies that are grounded in scientific and practice-based evidence" and calls on an impressive array of partners from all sectors: not just transportation and healthcare, but also education, business, media and more.

Perhaps most striking though is the clear focus on equity. The Call specifically highlights the importance of including wheelchair rolling in our discussions about walkability. It speaks to the power of change starting at the community level. And it urges practionners in all sectors to recognize disparities in access — and combat unintended consequences of increased walkability, like gentrification. 

To launch the Call, the Surgeon General invited a number of partners to join him in person in D.C. — and online via a live webcast. Check out @BikeWalk for our live tweet coverage of the launch and see some of the key stats, infographics and insights in our Storify below.

Stay tuned to the Alliance blog for on the Call to Action in coming days!