Grant: Team Grant: Environments and Health: Intersectoral Prevention Research

The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that "...children have the right to the highest attainable level of health and the right to a safe environment, free from injury and violence." Active transportation (AT), such as walking and biking, is a healthy way for children to explore their environment and develop independence. However, children can be injured while walking and biking and these injuries can be severe when children are hit by motor vehicles. Many Canadian cities make changes to the built environment (e.g., traffic calming features, separated bike lanes) to try and keep people safe. There is some research on how effective these changes are in preventing adult pedestrians and bicyclists from getting hurt, but very little research has been done to show how safe various environments are for children and youth. We propose a research program to study how features of the built environment affect whether kids walk or bike to school and whether or not certain built environment features increase or decrease their likelihood of getting hurt. Our program is unique because we are partnering with injury prevention professionals, provincial governments, environmental organizations and traffic safety professionals who are in a position to help us better understand what features of traffic environments are dangerous or safe. Our research will be very useful in making walking and biking much safer for children and youth.