Our organization, Green…

Our organization, Green Communities Canada, has been a leader in active school travel in Ontario, and with partners across Canada, for two decades. See www.saferoutestoschool.ca and our Canada Walks site, www.canadawalks.ca.

We have the following comments on MTO's discussion paper, Supporting Commuter Cycling Through Climate Change Action Plan.

The trip to school should be formally considered “bicycle commuting.” In fact, cycling to school should be considered a particularly important type of commuting, because the school years are a time when habits are learned, and skills are developed, including traffic safety.

If your goal is modal shift and associated GHG emissions reductions, active school travel must be front and centre. Everyday cycling among youth for the trip to school is the foundation for lifelong cycling. Young people who don't cycle are much less likely to cycle as adults.

Investments in school-related cycling infrastructure should be considered in the context of School Travel Planning, a comprehensive multi-partner approach to addressing all barriers and solutions to active school travel. This is partly about engineered infrastructure, and creating safe routes, but it is much broader than that. It includes enforcement, safety training, supportive programming and promotion, and other elements as locally identified to promote increased cycling and other active transportation.

MTO's commuter cycling strategy should support for school travel planning, and the Ministry should engage with other ministries, including health and education, to ensure financial support for STP and province-wide adoption. School travel planning has been tested in all parts of the country and is being implemented systematically in several Ontario jurisdictions. For more about school travel planning see: http://saferoutestoschool.ca/school-travel-planning. We are pleased to answer questions.

Finally, we have a related issue we would like addressed. The Climate Change Action Plan says "support cycling and walking." But there is nothing here about walking. Will support for walking be addressed through a separate process?

We are concerned that walking is being neglected as a zero carbon transportation alternative, even though modal share of walking is much higher than cycling. From Statistics Canada: "Finally, in 2011, 880,800 commuters walked to work (5.7%), and 201,800 cycled (1.3%). In the 2006 Census, 6.4% of commuters walked and 1.3% cycled." Further, the potential pool of incremental walkers is likely much greater than cycling, because walking is available to people of all ages and abilities.

There is another crucial reason why walking should be addressed fully within the Climate Change Action Plan. Neighbourhood walkability is a major determinant of transit success. Most transit rides begin and end with a walk. If we want people to use public transit, we have to make sure it is safe, practical, and enjoyable to walk to connect with transit on foot.

Green Communities Canada will of course be pleased to discuss a pedestrian strategy for Ontario (which has yet to be developed even though fatalities and injuries for walkers are several times the casualty rate for cyclists).

Thanks for your attention.

Clifford Maynes
Green Communities Canada

[Original Comment ID: 196688]