One might call Karen Armstrong a driving force to help Wellington County residents become more active.
Armstrong is with the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph In Motion committee and one of those spearheading the creation of an active transportation plan for Wellington County.
“The problem isn’t necessarily the people are not willing to get out there; they need to be able to do it safely,” she said.
In a rural area, the physical layout and design of the communities often makes biking or other active travel difficult for routine activities such as shopping, going to work or school. Many areas have neither sidewalks nor cycling lanes, she said.
In rural areas, homes are often too far from shops, jobs and services to make walking or cycling practical for most trips. In addition, she said, communities tend to be connected via roads, not by trails or cycling lanes.
That leaves residents and tourists with one option – the automobile.
As for the benefits of being active, Armstrong said there are many. She said research shows how communities are built and designed has a direct impact on the population.
Health is a big one. “The risk of obesity goes up 6% for every hour we spend in a car, but down for every kilometre we walk each day.”
When considering the statistics locally, the one that surprised her was the degree of overweight youths from ages 12 to 19 in Wellington County. It is at 18%, whereas Guelph is at 6%.
Armstrong was also quick to point out active transit is not the answer, but one of a number of factors. “In rural areas we often have to drive everywhere. Our communities are connected by roads, not necessarily by trails, cycle lanes or other options – even within a community.”
She cited parents who drive their kids to school because there are no sidewalks, the walking route might be unsafe or the trail may not feel comfortable.
She added obesity, in turn, is connected with Type 2 diabetes, which can happen now as early as age 6 in Ontario.
“It is preventable because it is linked with eating and physical activity,” said Armstrong.
Another issue is the environment, and studies indicate transportation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gasses, which in turn affect climate. Plus the pollutants from vehicles are having a local impact, she said. They are related to cardiac disease and asthma in children.
“The closer one lives to a major roadway, the higher the incidence of asthma for children.”
Another aspect is water quality, she said.
Armstrong said the ground acts as a natural filter, but once it is paved or built upon, natural filtration no longer occurs. Therefore the water flow is more contaminated, and warmer – which has further impacts on the environment.
In Wellington County, Armstrong added, air pollution can affect crop yields anywhere from 20 to 25%.
Another aspect she found interesting is the issue of social cohesion.
“There is a significant portion of the population which does not drive,” she said.
Those people can be under 16, older adults or those with a physical disability. “And we are an aging population – with one third of the population over the age of 50.”
The other part of the equation is the economy.
Because of the economic downturn in recent years, allowing alternative transportation provides an opportunity for vehicle cost savings to be spent elsewhere.
Armstrong said the other area of social cohesion “is that the more time you spend in your car, the less time you have to get to know your neighbours. When you have a strongly cohesive neighbourhood, it decreases crime rates, volunteerism increases and things like that.”
Armstrong also commented on injury statistics.
In Wellington County, there were 3,653 collisions in 2007.
“There are a lot of connections as to how local road systems are built. It used to be that the goal was to move traffic and get it through.”
The idea now is to slow traffic down, and Armstrong said the more cyclists that are on the road, the more motorists pay attention and slow down.
She said Quebec studies indicate that accidents there had decreased by 50% with more cyclists using roads.
Armstrong said it is not just about building cycling lanes on highways, but maintaining them. Work is still being done to determine how to best promote trails and active transportation links and where the connections should be. “Obviously we don’t have the money to do it all right away,” she said.
One of the questions we’ve been asked is “why do we need a plan? It’s no different than sewers, water or planning for population growth – such as projecting the routes where kids are likely to walk to school. We know gas prices are not likely to go down. We need to plan transportation routes that are affordable and accessible in a long-term plan.”
County planner Sarah Wilhelm said the proposal started with a request that went to the Wellington County roads sub committee. There were some from Elora who were requesting cycling lanes on county roads.
From there, the roads sub committee polled municipalities across Wellington to see what they thought. That meeting was held in Minto and six of seven municipalities attended. Members of Public Health, the county, In Motion and the City of Guelph (because of its connection to the county) got involved.
Armstrong said during that meeting it was unanimous the plan should include not only county roads, but also those owned by lower tier municipalities and the province – for both cycling and walking.
“The original request was simply just to pave the shoulders of the county roads … it kind of blossomed from that into active transportation.”
Active transportation just means people-powered. It can be canoeing, skateboarding, roller blades, walking, hiking or by wheelchair.
Wilhelm said it’s much like a chicken and egg scenario, because the committee needed to be created in order to undertake the study.
At the planning committee level, Wilhelm said the group is having the county help with some of the funds collected because they are coming from so many sources. Those funds will go to hire a consultant to prepare an active transportation plan.
She explained the group had to established a committee to do that. As for existing trails, Wilhelm said Wellington County is not a recreation service provider. “That’s where it gets interesting for me as a land use planner.”
For several years, Wilhelm has been involved in trail development.
The county has a very limited set of trails including two rail trails – the Kissing Bridge Trail near West Montrose and the Trestle Bridge Trail at Wellington Place in Aboyne.
She added there generally is also an annual modest trail budget of around $25,000 – which is used to improve existing trails, but also moving into promotion including a trail guide, Wellington Walks, which outlines over 30 trails in Wellington County. That include township, private and county trails. The guide shows over 170km of trails.
Wellington County has in its borders six conservation authorities and many unique geographical features.
Wilhelm said, “We want to link the good trails … with the road systems, schools and connections between communities.”
A database exists at the county which allows her to look at the locations for specific developments. “We’re really at a point where we can start looking broadly … and at a point where we can start promoting our trails.”
The new guide will be re-released this year with added trails.
She said at some Wellington County forests kiosks have been constructed and trails have been formalized.
“That adds a whole other system of defined trails throughout the rural areas.”
Wilhelm said there would be obvious implications for the roads staff and how official plan documents might need to be altered. She foresees a policy being developed and noted there are already policies that support trails and health.
The plan will consider connections to surrounding areas such as Dufferin County and regions adjacent to Wellington, but also community to community. A number of trails bisect Wellington County on the way to other locations, such as the Elora-Cataract Trail, the Grand Valley Trail and the Kissing Bridge Trail.
Wilhelm sees them as opportunities for partnerships with other areas. “It’s on the radar. Now that the trails are mapped, the next logical step is to look beyond our boundaries,” she said.
Into the future, she sees communities where people have options to walk or bike, knowing not everyone will be able to walk or bike every day to school or work. It would allow people to bike to local markets or to other communities.
Wilhelm said doing the map project shows how trails are distributed in Wellington. There are some areas where there are few opportunities.
Armstrong would also like to enhance opportunities for developers to automatically link to existing trails.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION … as provided by Karen Armstrong
What is in motion?
In motion is a successful health promotion strategy, resulting in a sustained increase in physical activity rates in Saskatoon. In 2006, communities across Wellington County, Dufferin County and the City of Guelph came together to address the alarming rates of physical inactivity in our region. A partnership was formed, called Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) in motion. WDG in motion is a regional collaborative that has operated for 3 years and launched publicly on October 3, 2007, in conjunction with the World Record Walk.
Our vision is that Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph will be a physically active, healthy community. WDG in motion is leading the way to a physically active, healthy WDG by:
• Building Long-term and meaningful partnerships
• Encouraging the development of healthy communities that support physical activity
• Supporting local opportunities for residents to be physically active
• Removing barriers to physical activity
Guiding principles
• We understand that increasing physical activity is a complex issue
• We work within our capacities & resources
• We leverage existing efforts & look for opportunities to partner
• We strive to model our vision within our own organizations
• We learn together & engage in knowledge transfer
• We manage our growth
• We measure progress & celebrate success.
Why Do We Need to be in motion?
It is a staggering statistic that 88% of Canadian children are not active enough! Like the rest of Canada, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) has an inactive population. 31% of Dufferin County residents and 40% of Guelph/ Wellington residents report being inactive.1 In addition, 54% of males and 44% of females are overweight or obese, in WDG.
The health risks associated with being overweight increases directly as weight increases. Obese people are 3 times more likely than people with healthy weights to have high blood fat levels, type 2 diabetes, gall bladder disease and breathing problems. They are also more likely to develop cancer, and have higher death rates from cancer.
Our inactivity is a result of many factors including the time spent in vehicles, on the computer, watching television and playing video games. Compared with the provincial data, a higher proportion of WDG residents spend two or more hours of their leisure time every day watching television or videos, using computers to surf the web or play games. If the time spent traveling in cars and buses were included, the proportion would be even higher.
Due to the increase in chronic diseases and the role that physical activity can play in improving health, initiatives addressing physical activity are urgently needed.
Partnerships:
There are over 100 organizations, groups and individuals working together at the local level to address physical inactivity in our region, through the in motion collaborative. These include: City of Guelph, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Ministry of Health Promotion & Sport, Town of Orangeville, Township of Centre Wellington, University of Guelph, Upper Grand Family Health Team, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, YMCA-YWCA of Guelph, Mount Forest Family Health Team, Town of Mono, the Upper Grand District School Board, the Wellington Catholic District School Board, Minto-Mapleton Family Health Team, Alma Optimist Club, Headwaters Communities in Action, Guelph Community Health Centre, The Cooperators, St. Joseph’s Health Care Centre, Health and Performance Centre, Town of Erin, Township of Guelph/Eramosa, Township of Wellington North, Township of Mapleton and much more.
Successes to Date:
Development of Communities in motion teams (CIM’s) in Wellington North, Centre Wellington, Guelph and Minto-Mapleton. CIM’s include a combination of local residents, businesses and organizations that have a commitment to physical activity and are working to provide opportunities and reduce barriers.
Launched October 3, 2007 in conjunction with the World Record Walk with 63 sites across Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG). 21, 608 WDG residents walked for 1 km simultaneously. WDG is home to 0.002% of Ontario’s population, yet hosted 14% of Ontario’s walkers in the World Record Walk. Canada was successful in breaking the World Record.
Completed a baseline survey for adults, as well as children and youth.
In October 2010 we launched the inMotion Certified! program in elementary schools and child care centres. inMotion Certified! is a fun, free 8 level program that recognizes and rewards school and child care programs for everything they do to be physically active. For more information check out the youth section for a brochure and level application form.
Launching Freiker (pronounced fry-ker) at James McQueen Public School, Fergus and St. Mary Catholic School, Elora. Freiker uses advanced technology to substantially increase the number of children regularly biking or walking to school. Freike awards prizes to children for riding their bikes or walking to school.
Initiated our first annual push-up/sit-up challenge, with the winning school in 2008, Mono Amaranth Public School, averaging 256 push-ups per student for the five-day challenge.
Distribution of 2,000 walking sticks in the Town of Mono and the Township of Wellington North.
Expanding the Summer Solstice Run in Mono to include a walk to appeal to families and non-runners.
Launching the Try It! Program in Minto that allows children and youth to “try” new sports without team uniforms, travel and competition. Several hundred children have been participated in this program.
The Township of Wellington North has hosted family walks, bird watching and other trail walks for residents.
Marketing of in motion message and logo in arenas, flowerbeds, flyers, newsletters, on banners, posters, etc. Within the first 8 months of launching, 11% of Guelph residents were familiar with in motion.
Launch of Guelph in motion workplace committee with 15 organizations. An annual Couch Potato Race involving the public sector, private and not-for-profit, publicly launched the workplace committee in June 2008.
Over 250 media ads between February 2007 and July 2009, written on in motion, partners and events.
