In March 2017, the Planning & Development Department, along with Houston Health Department, was awarded a direct technical assistance grant from C40 to evaluate the environmental and health benefits of the White Oak Bayou Greenway Hike and Bike Trail. C40 is a network of the world's megacities committed to addressing climate change, which supports cities ability to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change. Through the six-month process, C40 and the consultant team from Arup worked very closely with the Houston team to develop the evaluation methodology for the benefits analysis. The final report was completed in November 2017 which addresses the environmental, economic, and health benefits of the White Oak Bayou Greenway.
|
|
Source: Creating Healthy Liveable Cities: The Benefits of Urban Climate Action |
|
The report identified the ways in which a safer and more connected bike and pedestrian network encourages more people to engage in active transportation. An increase in active transportation can potentially reduce the rate of obesity, diabetes, and other health-related problems and costs, and help the city to achieve savings in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. To learn more about the report findings, see the P&D Transportation Planning
website.