Move More Path to Better Health

Creating a walking map and making it available to employees is an easy way to encourage physical activity at a worksite. Employees might be more willing to walk if they know where they are going and have a safe path. Distance markers will encourage employees to track their distance or steps and become more physically active at work. In large offices, measure and map an inside walking route(s) for both long (30 minute) and short (10 minute) walking breaks during inclement weather.

You might want to start by contacting your city planner’s office to discuss creating a map of your worksite neighborhood. They will usually create a map for you for an hourly fee. You can also get a map of your area by typing your address into a website like MapQuest or Google Maps.

Use this map to get a better feel for the layout of your worksite’s outdoor environment. Explore the area (in your car or on foot) and think about which pathways make sense for walking routes. Pay attention to the availability of sidewalks, steering clear of intersections, neighborhood safety, and traffic. Mark any problem areas on your map and make a note to avoid these spots when creating walking routes.

After getting the “lay of the land,” begin to mark the potential routes on your map. To determine the mileage for your routes, you can use a measuring wheel, drive the routes yourself, or take advantage of Google’s new pedometer website that will give you the mileage of walking routes in your area. Just type your physical address into the address box and use the push-pins to mark out your route.

Notify the city planner or designate yourself the areas that you want contained on the map. Remember that you want to steer clear of busy intersections and roads without sidewalks. Find a safe place for your employees to walk. You can also ask city planners to identify nearby athletic facilities, such as school tracks, greenways, and playing fields.

Either the city planner or you should mark several routes of varying lengths with different colors and create a key on the map to denote the amount of time it takes to walk each route. Our example map uses the pace of 15 minutes/mile and contains four different routes (10 minutes, 12 minutes, 18 minutes and 39 minutes). This gives employees’ flexibility and a general idea of how much time it will take them to walk each of these routes.

If your worksite does not have a safe outdoor area to walk, think about marking off mileage points in your parking lot (use a measuring wheel to determine the distance along the route) or creating an indoor walking route. One hospital we spoke to even painted their floors to denote the walking routes inside — each route was a different color. A measuring wheel is the best tool for marking indoor walking routes. Your local parks and recreation department, police department, high school athletic department, or the highway patrol may have a measuring wheel.

Once you have created a walking map, be sure to distribute it to employees. You can do this by emailing it to everyone in your office, placing a copy in everyone’s mailbox, or by placing boxes in the foyer of each of your worksite buildings with handouts of the walking map.

Consider enlarging your walking map and posting it in the foyer of your building. This will encourage employees to use the map to take walks during their breaks or lunch hours. You can also hand out or email walking logs to employees so that they can keep track of the number of steps they take, their mileage, or time. Making a walking map available will help to encourage employees to take advantage of the walking routes in your area ’ making the most of their environment!

Move More Path to Better Health includes the following resources:

Sample Walking Map from the NC Division of Public Health

Sample DHHS Dix Campus Walking Map

Downtown Raleigh Walking Map

Physical Activity Log

Walkability check-list for communities

Walking Log

Motivational Posters

Eat Smart Move More…NC Walking Map Guide

Worksite Walkability from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention