Grant: Planning Grants for Implementing Healthy Urban Policy

Active transportation provides an opportunity to move around one's community while providing health benefits to the user, and reducing their carbon footprint. It is also an inexpensive mode of transportation that is accessible to all. However, the policies and infrastructure in many mid-sized cities across Canada are not adequate to support people with using these active transportation modes. Our goal is to organize an event where thought-provoking speakers and panelists provide municipal staff, advocates, residents, and researchers with ideas on how to implement and evaluate equitable active transportation interventions. To ensure that these individuals are supported beyond the one-day event, we will also form the Public, Active, Clean, and Equitable (PACE) Mobility Group. This group will consist of researchers and knowledge users such as municipal staff, and will work to support communities across Canada who want to improve active transportation. We will also host community events to help residents in our community winterize their bikes or walking shoes, and to support them with biking to work. Together, we hope that this work, and the collaborations that result from it, will start our mid-sized city along a positive pathway to changing the way we think about mobility.