In recent decades, communities across Canada have seen alarming trends. Physical activity rates for children and youth have declined. Unsafe road conditions have increased around schools. These trends are health and public safety issues.

Researchers and practitioners across Canada are trying to address these issues. But they continue to face barriers. In particular, it is challenging to get reliable, consistent data on how families choose to travel to destinations like schools, playgrounds, grocery stores, etc.

We measure what matters. It seems obvious that protecting children and youth matters. So why is it such a challenge to advance research and informed policy changes that benefit the demographics at highest risk?

We convened a panel of experts to discuss current evaluation practices, ongoing challenges, and the innovative work that is advancing research in this space.

Meet the Panelists:

🚲 Howaida Hassan, City of Edmonton

Howaida Hassan is the Director of Urban Growth and Open Space with the City of Edmonton. She has over two decades of experience in the fields of transportation planning, urban planning, and growth management, and she currently leads a multidisciplinary team in city growth and open space planning.

🚲 Meridith Sones, Simon Fraser University

Meridith works in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University as knowledge mobilization manager for a CIHR-funded team of researchers, planners, and practitioners. This team is focused on the design of healthy and equitable cities. Her research explores the impact of community design on social connectedness, health, and equity. Meridith previously worked on the Youth.Hood research project with the CHATR lab at SFU, studying how youth voices can be engaged in the process of city building.

🚲 Markus Duncan, ParticipACTION

Markus Duncan is ParticipACTION’s Data Scientist. He completed a PhD in Kinesiology at UBC focusing on physical activity measurement and mental health. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario working in adolescent physical activity epidemiology.

🚲 Nicole Roach, Green Communities Canada

Nicole is Director of Sustainable Mobility at GCC. She is an experienced project and program manager who has led provincial and national initiatives focused on commuting behaviours, children’s mobility, and community outreach. Most notably, she led Manitoba’s annual Commuter Challenge, founded Women in Urbanism Canada, managed the Ontario Active School Travel program, and coordinated the National School Travel Data Collection Pilot. In her current role, Nicole manages several large-scale sustainable mobility projects, including coordinating the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance and overseeing the National Active School Streets Initiative.

Resources mentioned during the panel:

GCC’s Best Practices in School Data Collection in Canada: https://greencommunitiescanada.org/resource/best-practices-in-school-data-collection-in-canada/

Mobilizing Justice’s National Survey on Transport Poverty, mentioned by Howaida Hassan: https://mobilizingjustice.ca/working-groups/national-survey-of-transport-poverty-and-trse/

ParticipACTION’s expert-backed facts and research on living an active life (Physical Activity Report Cards) : https://www.participaction.com/the-science/

Youth.hood research project from the Chatr Lab, SFU Urban Studies, and the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, mentioned by Meridith Sones : https://chatrlab.ca/projects/youthhood/

GCC’s School Travel Planning program : https://greencommunitiescanada.org/program/school-travel-planning/

Canadian Bikeway Comfort and Safety (Can-BICS) classification system, mentioned by Meridith Sones: https://chatrlab.ca/projects/can-bics-english/

Sixth Grade Science and the City of Tomorrow Comic Book, mentioned by Howaida Hassan: https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/documents/Sixth_Grade_Science_and_the_City_of_Tomorrow_Comic_Book.pdf?