What is Active Transportation?

Active transportation is any form of human-powered transportation. It is any trip made for the purposes of getting yourself, or others, to a particular destination - to work, to school, to the store or to visit friends. As long as it is "active", you can choose the mode - walking, cycling, wheeling, in-line skating, skateboarding, ice skating (eg. on a canal). Walking and cycling are the most popular forms of active transportation. It can also involve combining modes such as walking/cycling with public transit.

Active Transportation is important for a number of reasons!

Several important issues today can be addressed if more Canadians choose to use their feet or bike more often, rather than using their car - our health and safety, the health of our environment, and the quality of life in our neighbourhoods.

With six in ten Canadians not physically active enough to achieve the full health benefits - sedentary living is a significant health issue today! Canadians live a car-centred lifestyle taking away a great opportunity to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives.

Research has shown that achieving the equivalent to walking for an hour throughout the day is health promoting. Even in 10 minute bouts, the time it takes to walk to the bus, you could be incorporating physical activity into your day. Moderate physical activities, such as walking and cycling, reduce the risk of premature death, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure and many other diseases and disorders.

Transportation is one of the largest contributors of harmful emissions that are responsible for poor air quality and human health effects. Human activity, such as transportation, is having a dramatic impact on the environment. One key concern is climate change - the result of increasing levels of greenhouse gases which trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Transportation produces 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Canadians are becoming increasingly concerned about air pollution from cars and are more willing than ever to make a variety of changes to their car use in order to reduce the environmental impact of driving. These changes are, reducing driving and walking/biking more.

Transportation is a major part of our life, consuming many hours of our day. We make many different kinds of trips: to work, to school, to do errands/shopping, to visit friends and to transport our children to their recreational activities. Each Canadian makes an average of 2,000 car trips of less than 3 km each year, trips that could be replaced with an active choice of transportation for all or part of the trip.

The number of cars has increased steadily; people are driving more often and farther distances. Each car travels, on average, 16,000 km/year or about 300 km/week. Limiting the number of kilometres driven by choosing another mode of transportation is by far the best way to reduce air pollution.

The most energy efficient and least costly mode of transportation is muscle power!

For distances up to 5 km, cycling is recognized as the fastest of all modes from door to door.

Taking Action

Here are some ideas that may help you consider adopting more active modes of transportation:

• Think twice about using your car for every trip. Could you walk or use your bike to visit friends?
• Dust off your bicycle and cycle to work when the weather permits.
• Trade in your dress shoes for running shoes, strap on a backpack and walk all, or part of the way to work/school.
• Instead of driving your kids to the park, why not make it a family outing on your bikes.
• If you are considering moving, think about the transportation options available to you in the new locations you are considering. How far will the distance be to those places you regularly need to get to. Could you walk to do most of your small errands? How far away is the nearest school for your child? Is this new neighbourhood "pedestrian friendly"?

But keep in mind, it's not just up to an individual to adopt active transportation, our communities, workplaces and schools must also support active transportation.

Communities that endorse active transportation :

• have dedicated bicycle lanes and routes;
• advocate for sharing the road with cyclists;
• undertake specific measures to ensure the safe integration of pedestrians, cyclists and other active users among motorized vehicle traffic;
• regularly maintain and upgrade pedestrian and cycling facilities;
• provide storage for bicycles throughout the city;
• have an integrated network of pedestrian and cycling paths that are designed for efficient transportation as well as recreation;
• favour urban design that reduces the distances that people have to travel to get to work, retail areas, schools and recreational/leisure pursuits;
• encourage the retail and service sectors to support customers who use active modes of transportation;
• plan streetscapes to be visually pleasing and inviting to pedestrians;
• have a network of greenspaces throughout the urban and suburban areas;
• make access to public transit easily integrated with pedestrian and cycling facilities to encourage intermodal travel;
• encourage driver education about how to share the road with multi-users;
• encourage feedback from citizens, pedestrian and cycling advocacy groups.

Workplaces that endorse active transportation:

• support and encourage their employees to adopt active transportation;
• provide secure bicycle storage, lockers and shower facilities for employees;
• allow more flexible dress codes;
• organize workplace challenges, employee recognition programs or support community events to increase awareness;
• work with municipal planners to map out safe and efficient routes to work and to address infrastructure or safety problems;
• emphasize reduced motorized transportation while at work and encourage more active modes;
• provide or subsidize safe cycling or in-line skating clinics for their employees.

Schools that endorse active transportation:

• support and encourage their students to adopt an active way to get to school;
• work with the municipality to identify safe routes for children while addressing safety and infrastructure barriers;
• encourage parents to form "escorted walks" to and from school for young neighbourhood children;
• have teachers work with children to identify the safest routes to get to school while teaching children about traffic and pedestrian safety;
• offer cycling and in-line skating skill and safety courses;
• work with parents, motorists and the community at large, to make the trip to school a safe trip for children and youth.

The Public Health Agency of Canada supports a number of organizations and initiatives related to active transportation.

Important Notices