A new study done in partnership between Brandon University, the City of Brandon and Prairie Mountain Health has received approximately $68,000 in federal funding to explore how public spaces in the city are used.
“Walking the Walk in Smaller Cities” in Brandon is one of four municipalities that have received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to investigate how active transportation options like biking and walking as well as public spaces can be better supported.
Other participating cities include Guelph, Ont., Oshawa, Ont., and Saskatoon, Sask.
On the team for the project are representatives of all three organizations: Brandon University professor Rachel Herron, director of communications Grant Hamilton and research assistant Jared Friesen, Mayor Jeff Fawcett, City of Brandon director of planning Ryan Nickel and Prairie Mountain Health medical officer of health Dr. Amy Frykoda.
Presenting on the project was Hamilton, who said he believes the city has a chance to find world-class solutions to active transportation in smaller cities. He said the project and Brandon team had been assembled in less than a month.
This summer, the project will consult with residents about how they walk and bike in Brandon’s public spaces as well as the reasons why they don’t.
This will include online consultations as well at smallercities.ca, focus groups and in-person pop-up consultations throughout the summer.
A council of representatives from groups like the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council and Westman Immigrant Services is also being formed to make sure people from different backgrounds and experiences are accounted for in the study.
This fall, once data has been collected, Herron told council that the Brandon team will meet up with the other Canadian teams at a global workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Following that, the Brandon team will meet up with local focus groups to explore ideas inspired by that visit to Copenhagen and how they can be translated to Brandon.
Then, next summer, the team will pick an active transportation or public spaces project to implement in Brandon with the intention of inviting people from other smaller Canadian cities to help share what was learned.
» Twitter: @ColinSlark