City Encourages Celebration of National Walk to Work Day: Friday 4/3

Mayor DeStefano Urges City Employees to Celebrate National Walk to Work Day, this Friday, April 3

Mayor DeStefano, the Health Department and the Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department will kick-off the Spring Street Smarts Campaign at a National Walk to Work event this Friday at 8 a.m. at the intersections of Court Street and Olive Street, and Court Street and State Street in Downtown. At this event, residents will have the opportunity to sign up for the City’s Street Smarts program, receive useful tips on becoming safer pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. Also at this event, the City will unveil ten of the twenty new in-road pedestrian signs that will be installed throughout New Haven over the course of the next several weeks.

On National Walk to Work Day employees are encouraged to walk for all or part of their commute to work and to aim for a minimum 15 minute walk each way. If you take public transportation, try walking to a further stop before boarding, or getting off a stop early and walking the rest of the distance to work. If an employee’s commute is too long, they can make it a Walk to Lunch Day.

Walking for 30-60 minutes a day greatly reduces risks of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. By finding a way to make walking part of each day, experts say, you are giving yourself proven health benefits far beyond any promised by herbs, vitamins, or prescription drugs.

New Haven has the highest percentage of residents who walk to work of any large city in New England. In fact, less than half of all New Haveners take a single-occupant vehicle to work and Prevention Magazine ranks New Haven as a Top 20 "Best Walking City".

As always, employees are encouraged to practice Street Smarts. Street Smarts go beyond simply obeying the traffic regulations or driving below the speed limit. Street Smarts call for attentiveness at all times; patience with others and a willingness to share the road.

National Walk to Work Day is endorsed by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the American Podiatric Medical Association.

(text from city announcement)