About ALRC

The public-health field tells us, and offers evidence to support their claims, that we can do a lot to prevent health problems just by being more physically active. Regular daily activity — what the public-health professionals refer to as "active living" — is the key. The best way for most of us to stay active, they say, is to take a daily walk or bike ride.

Unfortunately, most of us live in places that weren't designed to make bicycling and walking easy, safe, and convenient. Not for transportation, not for recreation, not for health and fitness. Our communities are full of barriers to bicycling and walking.

Often, the design of our towns and cities discourages, rather than encourages, these activities.

The role of the Active Living Resource Center (ALRC) web site is to provide you the resources and tools to help you make walking and bicycling part of your community's healthy lifestyle. You're here because you want to tackle this problem.

While it's true that we have a lot of problems, people just like you are making a difference in a growing number of communities throughout America by learning about the problems our transportation system creates, and then becoming active in fixing them. We'll tell you who those people are, and give you the opportunity to network with them as you design and implement programs to make your community a more activity friendly environment.

The Active Living Resource Center is operated with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Foundation supports a number of Active Living Programs. You can learn more about these programs by visiting our Active Living Partners, and by reading our Active Living Principles.