The U.S. Surgeon General has issued a call to action to promote walking and walkable communities as a key strategy to improve the health of U.S residents. The call to action complements and provides support for existing recommendations aimed at helping Americans become more physically active, improve their health, and reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity nationwide.

The document explicitly links physical activity and health to the design of communities and their streets. Among the community design elements that the report says reduce walking trips are "sprawling land use patterns and lack of connectivity." The report then calls upon transportation and planning professionals to improve public health through design that fosters walking.  Its first two goals are:

• To make walking a national priority.
• To design communities that make it safe and easy for people of all ages and abilities to walk.

The call to action highlights the fact that 30 percent of Americans report that they do not have sidewalks in their neighborhoods and looks to city planners, transportation professionals, local government and community leaders, and law enforcement to work together to overcome this problem and to take actions to improve the safety and walkability of communities and neighborhoods nationwide.