{"id":3944,"date":"2010-04-08T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:43:16","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:43:16","slug":"determinants-of-health-and-the-hccs-crosstown-connector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2010\/04\/08\/determinants-of-health-and-the-hccs-crosstown-connector\/","title":{"rendered":"Determinants of Health and the HCC’s Crosstown Connector"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"spokespeople_feature-600\"Brought to you in collaboration with the\u00a0Ecology Action Centre<\/a><\/em> <\/em>and <\/em>Halifax Cycling Coalition<\/a><\/em>, SpokesPeople covers all things cycle-related. From the principles to the potholes, we’re here to examine the realities facing the two-wheeled traveler<\/em>.<\/p>\n

HALIFAX – <\/strong>I must confess: the biggest reason that I became a writer for Spacing Atlantic is a selfish one. I’ve been attending Dalhousie University for the past six years \u2014 three of which I’ve spent working on a BSc in Nursing. During this time, I’ve learned many hard facts about the health of Nova Scotians and of Halifax, and I have to admit that I’m more than just a little concerned.<\/p>\n

Nearly one in four children in Canada are overweight or obese. Less than 1% of young Nova Scotian women in grade 11 engage in the required amount of physical activity on a weekly basis. Nova Scotia is among the top three provinces with the highest proportional population of people with type 2 diabetes \u2014 a completely preventable condition. We have higher than usual rates of specific cancers, and our mental health \u2014 and mental healthcare system \u2014 is in rough shape (quick note, both of these factors can be prevented to a degree by engaging in physical activity).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although we are beginning to see an initial crest of the Baby-Boomers in our healthcare institutions \u2014 an aggregate that many allege will change our healthcare system to a more tiered or Americanized model \u2014 I am personally noticing admittance of young people with weight problems. These same young people have comorbidities such as heart and cardiovascular diseases and joint problems that are common among people in their 70s or 80s. Not only does this create a gigantic fiscal demand on our province (thus limiting investment in other provincial portfolios such as education and environmental preservation), it creates a massive physical burden to the nurses, physiotherapists, personal care assistants and other frontline health practitioners province-wide (thus making my job significantly more difficult).<\/p>\n

So how does the planning of public spaces fit in to all this? Over the past couple decades, the Public Health Agency of Canada has learned a great deal about what contributes to our health. In fact, they have narrowed these contributors down to 12 predictors known as the Determinants of Health<\/a>. There are two specific determinants that I believe have the greatest impact on encouraging people to become physically active: our physical environment and our social environment.<\/p>\n

When we look at the physical environment of Halifax in terms of transportation, unless you own a car your mode of transportation is largely ignored. Not only does not facilitating use of active transportation provide us with a less than diverse array of transportation choices (physical environment), it also cognitively and socially reinforces the concept that unless you are in a car, you should not be on the road (social environment). Unless we proactively address Halifax’s lack of physical infrastructure dedicated to encouraging active transportation and active living, our children’s health will continue to deteriorate, and the quality of life of Haligonians will continue to deteriorate.<\/p>\n

Cue Halifax’s cycling population! Over the past two months, the Halifax Cycling Coalition has been gathering support to make a gigantic change to Halifax’s transportation diversity through establishing an active transportation corridor on the peninsula. We hope that this corridor \u2014 dubbed the Crosstown Connector<\/a> \u2014 will eventually connect to the Bedford highway bike lane, thus also serving sub-urbanites coming in from Bedford, and in some instances, Sackville.<\/p>\n

What sort of effect might this have on Haligonians? In many other cities across Canada and around the world\u00a0evidence indicates\u00a0that as cycling infrastructure increases, so to does the cycling population of that city. Quality of life also increases, and crime is actually prevented through environmental design. Local businesses will also see a bump in profits as many studies from Toronto<\/a>, New York<\/a> and even here in NS<\/a> indicate that pedestrians and cyclists together constitute a powerful consumer aggregate.<\/p>\n

With Halifax in a state of stagnation, and a growing cyclist population that needs to be catered to, the Halifax Cycling Coalition feels that our Crosstown Connector proposal is something that will definitely result in a major positive impact, not only to our city, but it will represent a major step in combating our physically inactive culture.<\/p>\n

photo by Emma Feltes<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brought to you in collaboration with the\u00a0Ecology Action Centre and Halifax Cycling Coalition, SpokesPeople covers all things cycle-related. From the principles to the potholes, we’re here to examine the realities facing the two-wheeled traveler. HALIFAX – I must confess: the biggest reason that I became a writer for Spacing Atlantic is a selfish one. I’veContinue reading “Determinants of Health and the HCC’s Crosstown Connector”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8053,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5857,5866,393,341],"tags":[1414,2192,490,2200,339,580,1087,2201,927,533,340,351,531,2195,2194,2196,646,358,660,2193,2202,371,574,2199,381,348,2198,2197,2013],"class_list":["post-3944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-green-space","category-infrastructure","category-urban-design","tag-active-transportation","tag-active-transportation-corridor","tag-canada","tag-cardiovascular-diseases","tag-cycling","tag-cyclist","tag-dalhousie-university","tag-diabetes","tag-ecology-action-centre","tag-emma-feltes","tag-environment","tag-halifax","tag-halifax-cycling-coalition","tag-healthcare-institutions","tag-healthcare-system","tag-mental-healthcare-system","tag-new-york","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nova-scotians","tag-physical-infrastructure","tag-public-health-agency-of-canada","tag-sackville","tag-spacing-atlantic","tag-specific-cancers","tag-toronto","tag-transportation","tag-transportation-choices","tag-transportation-diversity","tag-writer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDeterminants of Health and the HCC's Crosstown Connector - Spacing Atlantic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2010\/04\/08\/determinants-of-health-and-the-hccs-crosstown-connector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Determinants of Health and the HCC's Crosstown Connector - Spacing Atlantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brought to you in collaboration with the\u00a0Ecology Action Centre and Halifax Cycling Coalition, SpokesPeople covers all things cycle-related. 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