Improving Walkability and Movability in the United States Virgin Islands

Submission Date: November 2022

Entry Type: Case Study

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: Virgin Islands

Funding Source: CDC

CDC Funding:

Yes

Grant Number:

6 NU38OT000286-05-01

Other Federal Funding:

N/A

Other Funding:

Other

Domain Addressed:

Environmental Approaches

Public Health Issue:

Physical activity is one of the best things people can do to improve their health. Most people who meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans walk for leisure or transportation to and from everyday destinations, but overall, the number of people who do this is low. Not enough people have access to streets that make walking and moving safe and easy, nor do they have access to trails, parks, and recreational facilities. In the USVI, barriers to walking include challenging terrains, limited sidewalks, and lack of adequate pedestrian safety measures to provide safe walking or moving experiences. Creating or modifying environments to make it easier for people to walk, move, bike, or take transit helps increase physical activity and can make communities better places to live. This supports CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation community design for physical activity strategy.

Project Objectives:

1) Shift cultural norms on walking, moving, bicycling, and transit use to normalize, promote, and celebrate active transportation
2) Require and institutionalize truly equitable and inclusive, place-based community engagement and input on public and private transportation and development projects
3) Strategically influence the Comprehensive Land and Water Plan to support healthy sustainable, multimodal designs and compact, mixed land use patterns
4) Support Department of Public Works and the private sector in implementation of the Complete Streets policy to assure health infrastructure designs
5) Support Virgin Islands Transit in development of a reliable, equitable public transportation network across the territory

Program Action:

The USVI Walkability project aims to increase safe, accessible, and active transportation through a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort focused on evaluation, education, and implementation of equitable and sustainable policies, practices, and infrastructure . The five strategic areas are:
1) Established a USVI core interdisciplinary team (2016) to coordinate phased actions for long-term change
2) Conducted an Epi-Aid study (2016) of walking conditions on all three USVI islands
3) Planned and implemented a Walkability Institute (2017) focused on best practices and action planning
4) Implemented and evaluated multiple pedestrian demonstration infrastructure projects (2018-2022) across the territory
5) Planned and implemented a Walkability Institute Summit (2022) to celebrate accomplishments and engage in interdisciplinary strategic planning

Data/Other Information Collected:

An Epi-Aid study for walking in the territory was conducted in 2016 to assess the prevalence of community design features that promote walking among streets in USVI. Findings demonstrated that 88.6% of streets had no sidewalk, 78.2% of streets had no walkable destinations (e.g., shops, restaurants, parks); and 46.7% of streets had no lighting. It is also notable that only 6.2% of intersections have a marked crosswalk treatment.

Impact/Accomplishments:

The USVI Walkability Institute project efforts has resulted in the following successes to date:
1) Helped influence the passage of a USVI Complete Streets legislation (2022) with potential to impact all 105,870 residents across the three USVI islands by legislating safer streets for all potential users. Specifically, all modes of transportation (walking, biking, use of public transit, freight traffic, and emergency response vehicles) must be equitably considered in every stage of planning and implementation of new roadway work.
2) Identified the University of the Virgin Islands’ Caribbean Exploratory Research Center as the new “home” of the USVI Walkability Institute project (2022)
3) Increased the number and type of interdisciplinary partners joining the core partner team following successful implementation of the Walkability Institute Summit (2022)

Challenges/Lessons Learned:

Following the implementation of the initial Walkability Institute in 2016, the USVI was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The condition of streets and roadways in the USVI suffered severe damage. As part of its recovery process, the USVI identified opportunities to use recovery dollars to repair, upgrade, and enhance its streets and roadways incorporating active transportation in the re-build, yielding these two lessons learned:
1) Taking advantage of recovery “build-back” dollars is a valuable way to leverage funds for pedestrian centered built environment changes; and
2) Improving walkable, movable, and active transportation infrastructure also enhances island resiliency with future weather-related natural disasters

Next Steps:

The five strategic priority areas (noted above) were identified by attending partners in the 2022 Walkability Institute Summit and will be the foundation of a new strategic plan to be developed in 2023 that will serve to advance walkability and movability in the USVI for the next several years. The new strategic plan will contain sustainable policy, system, and environmental change strategies that will extend beyond the previous pedestrian demonstration infrastructure project implementation into strategies that are more sustainable and reach more people, as well as institutionalize and reinvigorate support by stakeholder agencies. This new strategic plan will represent a shared vision for making the USVI more walkable, movable, healthy, and economically viable.

Program Areas:

Healthy Communities (general), Islander Health, Other

State Contact Information:

United States Virgin Islands
(Written by) Karma E. Edwards, MSPH (NACDD)
National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
kedwards_ic@chronicdisease.org

Board President's Challenge:

No

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