{"id":2354,"date":"2007-10-03T21:59:43","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T01:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2354"},"modified":"2007-10-03T23:04:29","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T03:04:29","slug":"walk21-public-health-and-urban-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk21: Public health and urban design"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg\" height=\"333\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Walk21 post brings you some findings from a fascinating session on the relationship between public health and urban design as they affect and are affected by walking.<\/p>\n<p>At this session, we learned that the evidence that urban design &#8212; such as suburban sprawl &#8212; has a powerful impact on walking behaviour, and therefore on public health, is becoming stronger and stronger (despite some <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=1321\">occasional early skepticism<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In Edmonton, the local regional health authority, Capital Health, has realized that a key part of public health is fostering health-promoting environments, notably ones that encourage people to walk. They have started to make connections with planners and engineers to push for the development of walking-friendly built environments,  and at the same time have started to educate health professionals of the crucial role of urban design on health. To demonstrate the point, they have developed a &#8220;foundation document&#8221; which outlines the key studies and data that demonstrate this relationship &#8212; it should be available within a few days on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitalhealth.ca\/default.htm\">Capital Health website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Another example of this relationship was presented by a Toronto researcher, Gillian Booth.  Her team has developed a Toronto Diabetes Atlas, which correlates diabetes cases with how walking-friendly the local urban environment is (on the hypothesis that less walking leads to more obesity, which is a key risk factor for diabetes). To measure  walkability, they created an &#8220;Activity-Friendly Index&#8221; which incorporated statistics about population density, the proximity of retail (taking into account the accessibility of walking routes), car ownership, and the prevalence of crime. These factors by themselves made for fascinating maps that make a significant contribution to our understanding of Toronto&#8217;s walkability. When overlaid with a map of diabetes incidence, there was a strong correlation between low AFI (i.e. walkability) and high rates of diabetes, especially in Toronto&#8217;s north-east and north-west quadrants. Ethnicity and low income levels also showed a correlation, but it was accentuated by walkability &#8212; for example, low-income immigrant areas in the walkable downtown had noticeably lower levels of diabetes than areas with poor walkability but a similar socio-economic profile in Etobicoke and Scarborough. The report will be published at the beginning of November on the website of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/\">Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The most action-oriented presentation came from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vichealth.vic.gov.au\/\">VicHealth<\/a>, the public health department of the State of Victoria in Australia (equivalent to the Ontario government&#8217;s Ministry of Health Promotion). They have taken a remarkably active role in making people aware of the connection between how cities are built and health, for example building a relationship with the Planning Institute of Australia, which led to that organization adopting a national position that &#8220;Health needs to be at the centre of planning considerations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was also particularly struck by their awareness that walking is important for sustaining good mental as well as physical health. It was a message conveyed in a plenary session in the morning by Nova Scotia researcher Catherine O&#8217;Brien, but in Canada this concept is still in its initial stages, and public health departments are only just beginning to realize that maintaining good mental health can be as important as maintaining good physical health.  Apparently they are way ahead of us in Australia. For example, VicHealth funds public art projects in low-income areas that will draw people into public space, to enhance mental well-being.<\/p>\n<p>But VicHealth&#8217;s most striking initiative is a very heavy emphasis on walk-to-school programs for children. The ministry has set a goal of doubling the number of kids walking to school in the state from 30% to 60%. To achieve that goal, it provides full funding for these programs (such as the &#8220;walking school bus&#8221;) for two years (to the municipalities who manage them), which then evolves into an ongoing shared-cost structure. In rural areas where walking was not practical, they are developing equivalent cycling programs.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s such an obvious and easy way to massively increase walking. Imagine if Ontario&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mhp.gov.on.ca\/english\/default.asp\">Ministry of Health Promotion<\/a> began this kind of program across Ontario, and set that kind of ambitious goal. It would be fairly simply, and yet hugely effective.<\/p>\n<p>The program had other benefits beyond healthier kids. Once volunteers and kids began organized walks to school, they noticed deficiencies in the pedestrian infrastructure, such as dangerous crossings. They became eyes on the street, and powerful advocates, for a better walking environment. Once children and parents got involved, local councils scrambled to fix problems that had persisted, ignored, for years. One crucial issue was crossing times &#8212; children take longer to cross intersections than adults, and therefore need extended signals in order to cross safely.  VicHealth funded research that led to the implementation of extended crossing times at important intersections used by children.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the department funded an interesting <a href=\"http:\/\/att.ccp.iclei.org\/\">online Active Transport Quantification Tool<\/a> to help quantify, in monetary and other terms, the various benefits to self and to society of programs that get people walking and cycling instead of driving to and from school or work.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\">Adam Krawesky<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s Walk21 post brings you some findings from a fascinating session on the relationship between public health and urban design as they affect and are affected by walking. At this session, we learned that the evidence that urban design &#8212; such as suburban sprawl &#8212; has a powerful impact on walking behaviour, and therefore on<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Walk21: Public health and urban design&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_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":[3,6],"tags":[556,1220,457,1401,6906,6907,4889,6905,6910,6909,2812,713,636,3499,6908,4479,36,89,19,1681],"class_list":["post-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-walking","tag-adam-krawesky","tag-australia","tag-canada","tag-car-ownership","tag-catherine-obrien","tag-diabetes","tag-edmonton","tag-gillian-booth","tag-institute-for-clinical-evaluative-science","tag-ministry-of-health-promotion","tag-nova-scotia","tag-obesity","tag-ontario","tag-pedestrian-infrastructure","tag-planning-institute-of-australia","tag-researcher","tag-resources","tag-scarborough","tag-toronto","tag-victoria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto<\/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\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today&#8217;s Walk21 post brings you some findings from a fascinating session on the relationship between public health and urban design as they affect and are affected by walking. At this session, we learned that the evidence that urban design &#8212; such as suburban sprawl &#8212; has a powerful impact on walking behaviour, and therefore onContinue reading &quot;Walk21: Public health and urban design&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-04T01:59:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-10-04T03:04:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\",\"name\":\"Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-10-04T01:59:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-10-04T03:04:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Walk21: Public health and urban design\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\",\"name\":\"Dylan Reid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dylan Reid\"},\"description\":\"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Today&#8217;s Walk21 post brings you some findings from a fascinating session on the relationship between public health and urban design as they affect and are affected by walking. At this session, we learned that the evidence that urban design &#8212; such as suburban sprawl &#8212; has a powerful impact on walking behaviour, and therefore onContinue reading \"Walk21: Public health and urban design\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2007-10-04T01:59:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2007-10-04T03:04:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dylan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dylan Reid","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/","name":"Walk21: Public health and urban design - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg","datePublished":"2007-10-04T01:59:43+00:00","dateModified":"2007-10-04T03:04:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/inconduit.com\/gal\/july_30_2007\/col1713.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/03\/walk21-public-health-and-urban-design\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Walk21: Public health and urban design"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b","name":"Dylan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Dylan Reid"},"description":"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}