Wellington North councillors are ready to endorse a county-wide, visible, and connected active transportation plan.
Councillors offered that endorsement following a presentation by Karen Armstrong of the Wellington Dufferin Guelph Health Unit’s In Motion group. She described active transportation as human-powered and getting people out of their vehicles.
It includes walking, cycling, wheeling, inline skating, skateboarding, cross country skiing, canoeing and kayaking.
What is being considered now are problems and issues of why people are not walking, and how to address them. She said there are a lot of benefits to having an active transporation plan in Wellington.
Those include health, tourism, social equality, road maintenance and the environment.
Armstrong said new information from the Heart and Stroke Foundation suggests the risk of obesity goes up 6% for every hour spent in a car, while the risk drops by 5% for every kilometre walked each day.
“In Canada, we average 1.5 to 2.0 hours per day in our vehicles. Obesity is a large problem in Canada,” she said.
Factors include where people live and how they get to work. Studies indicate every year a high school student uses motorized transport adds two to three pounds per year above normal growth rates.
Armstrong contended over half of the adults in the Wellington-Dufferin-Grey area are overweight or obese. Another 88% of Canadian children are not active enough for health growth and development, she said. “There are major issues we are dealing with in the health sector.”
She said the economic benefits include increased tourism and property values.
She said the Route Verte in Quebec generates roughly $95-million in economic spinoffs annually.
Armstrong said there are potential benefits because paved cycle lanes reduce wear and tear on the road.
“We’re not proposing all roads . . . but some roads are better suited,” she said.
As for school bus costs, she suggested if more kids walked or biked to school, it could potentially reduce them.
She said the in 2008, the Upper Grand District School Board spent $13,259,604 and the Wellington County District School Board spent another $4,286,218.
“There’s a lot the school system could do with that money,” Armstrong suggested.
She alsocited the issue of social equality. With 48% of seniors having no vehcile, “if we’re building our communities for cars, there’s half that population required to get around without vehicles.”
She added the group 50 years and older is the largest segment of the population and will represent 32% of the residents by 2011.
Armstrong said enviornmental impacts of active transportation would diminish carbon output, reduce hydrocarbon pollution to soil, groundwater, and waterways.
She contended that active transportation plans are being developed all around the area with plans to link trails, roadways or cycle paths.
“There is no plan for Wellington County at this point.”
She said there are moves across the county to support such a plan being developed, and the comittee has applied for a Heart and Stroke Foundation grant to form a workgroup to move more active transportation forward.
That grant would provide for public meetings to look at and address barriers to active transportation.
Plans are to hold those workshops this fall. “If it is convenient, people will use it.”
Councillor Dan Yake, who chairs the public works committee, agreed this is something that needs to be addressed as Wellington North looks at development in new areas.
He agreed “Some of the items brought forward are things council needs to take a long hard look at as we move forward. I don’t think we can change all the things we have in place now, but to be proactive we would certainly look at each situation . . . and whether it is viable to have bike lanes, wider sidewalks, more trails and etc.”
Councillor Ross Chaulk however, commented on the item of walking versus buses to school, and asked how far that would mean. He agreed that for some it would be more convenient to walk or bike to school, but in rural areas that isn’t always the case.
“For the kids out in the rural area, how far do you want them to walk?”
Chaulk said most kids can go a “mile a minute” on a bike, but it is not the same for young children.
At the same time, he saw 10 minutes as very doable.
Council subsequently offered its support to the Town of Minto, which is seeking the creation of a county-wide active transportation plan.
