Grant: Team Grant: HCIS - LOI - Population and public health

Active transport and public transit are important to provide accessible and affordable physical activity as part of everyday life and to improve population health. In 2020-2021, the Canadian federal government announced major investments for active and public transit. While the health and environmental benefits of sustainable transport interventions have been demonstrated, their equity aspects (who benefits?) and how they move from policy to on-the-ground changes are not well understood. Most cities face difficulties in making sustainable transport infrastructure changes because of practical and political issues. An implementation science approach is needed to develop a better understanding of how and for whom sustainable transport interventions impact health and health equity. Our overarching goal is to advance the field of implementation science applied to sustainable transport and create the framework that is necessary for cities to make sustainable transport interventions that can improve health and reduce inequities. This proposal builds on the work of the CIHR funded INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT; 2017-2026), a project examining the health and equity impacts of sustainable transport interventions. INTERACT has successfully developed and conducted mixed methods natural experiment studies in three Canadian cities (Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Montreal) since 2017. We will expand our work to two Canadian cities, Kingston and Sherbrooke. We will also partner with Australian researchers in sustainable transport and implementation science. Our specific objectives are to: 1.Document factors influencing the implementation sustainable transport interventions; 2.Develop a preliminary evidence based sustainable transport implementation framework; 3.Evaluate the impact of sustainable transport interventions on implementation, health, and equity outcomes; 4.Refine the framework and develop practical tools for wide use among cities.