About 30 percent of Canadians don’t drive. By designing communities for these people to walk or cycle to get to where they need to go, we create a place that is good for our residents, businesses and economy.
In 2011 Healthy Living Niagara, a community partnership that aims to make the healthy choice an available choice, held the 1st Active Transportation Summit in Niagara. That event brought together 100 people representing all 12 local municipalities. This year’s Niagara Active Transportation Summit on March 4-5, 2015 will highlight successes achieved over the past five years and look for ways to accelerate active transportation by making it easier for people to walk and cycle.
A special evening and breakfast session are geared toward businesses and elected officials. Additional sessions are focused on the needs of municipal staff such as planners, engineers, and economic development officers along with citizen champions.
Highlights of the event include:
- Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko kick starting the Summit with an evening showing of his film, Bike City Great City
- Hamilton Councillor Matthew Green describing how Hamilton turned around their downtown
- Ron Clarke, who leads a team of engineers and planners in Ottawa, describing how they have moved Complete Streets from a concept to reality
- Inspiring success stories from Niagara and across Ontario
- Action planning to accelerate active transportation in Niagara
The event follows the release of the Living in Niagara-2014 Report and will help us address Suggested Action Steps in the Transportation and Mobility Sector, such as:
- Continue to focus on the economic and quality of life benefits for Niagara of being a “cyclist/biking friendly” community.
- Apply a healthy community lens in planning to develop walkable, transit supportive and universally accessible communities for all individuals’ enjoyment and participation.
In addition, the Summit will help to further our collective understanding of how Niagara’s cycling routes and bike friendly planning, many kilometers of multi-use trails and cycle tourism contribute to affordability and accessibility of transportation in Niagara.
There are numerous health, social, transportation, environmental and economic benefits from active transportation. Register for one or more sessions on March 4th and 5th and be a part of making active transportation an available choice in Niagara. Let’s get moving!
Follow event details on twitter @ATSummitNiagara #2015ATS and at www.healthylivingniagara.com
Lisa Gallant
Healthy Living Niagara Coordinator
