Regular communication has been key to successful collaborations among organizations to create policies to promote active transportation, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Researchers surveyed metropolitan planning organizations and partners working to advance active transportation policies and built environment changes, such as bike paths in six cities: Sacramento, San Diego, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis and Nashville.
They found that regular, frequent communication was associated with collaboration in all six cities. Resource sharing and perceived decisional authority was linked to collaboration in three cities.
鈥淎 鈥榦ne size fits all鈥� approach for active transportation policy collaboration may not be appropriate,鈥� wrote the study鈥檚 lead author, Marissa L. Zwald, a doctoral 黑料社 at the Brown School; and senior author Ross Brownson, professor and director of the Prevention Research Council, also at the Brown School. 鈥淐ommunicating frequently, pooling resources and fostering decisional authority may help organizations working to support AT policies across diverse sectors achieve aligned public health and transportation goals.鈥�
The study was posted online ahead of publication in the January 2019 edition of Preventive Medicine.