Understanding Lived Experience and Essential Conditions for Effective Active Transportation

The purpose of this project is to create evidence that describes the influence of urban trail development on population-level physical activity and active transportation. This is a growing field of importance as governments across all levels in Canada will be investing close to one billion dollars in urban infrastructure over the next ten years. There is a severe lack of empirical data surrounding what makes certain urban trails successful. This project aims to answer those questions to help optimize urban trail implementation, particularly in terms of reach, acceptability, and traffic volume of the trails. As part of the 2023-2026 budget, Edmonton’s City Council approved $100 million to proceed with the Active Transportation Network Expansion. Implementation focuses on building infrastructure to connect existing routes, improve access and connectivity, and create a more complete AT network. Implementation has the potential to lead to a modal shift in which more individuals are using AT. This project seeks to understand Edmontonians’ lived experiences to explore factors that affect adaptation and implementation of the Active Transportation Network Expansion and to inform and support the implementation through an equity lens (i.e., what gets built, where, and for whom).

Faculty Supervisor:

Kate Storey;Nicholas King

Student:

Partner:

Ever Active Schools

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Education

University:

University of Alberta

Program: