- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Peg City Car Co-op Video Series #3 - Cost!
by Shoni Litinsky 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

I hope you all enjoyed last week's video featuring Chris<http://vimeo.com/34035969>on the utility of using Peg City Car Co-op <http://www.pegcitycarcoop.ca>, even if at times it is simply helpful to get him out of an awkward date! *This week, our video features a family story - Ken, Shauna, and little Savvy talk about how the co-op helped them save money, and even buy a house! * * * *See it here: http://vimeo.com/34311607* We have recently moved a vehicle to South Osborne<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/2012/01/car2-moves-to-south-osborne/> - so if you live in that neighbourhood and have considered carsharing or would like to learn more about it. Please get in touch with me! One more week left to go in our video series, stay tuned! -- Shoni Peg City Car Co-op Co-ops build a better world - International Year of the Co-op 2012<http://www.copac.coop/iyc/index.html> .

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Gaining Ground Conference - Registration open
by Cara Fisher 21 Jan '12

21 Jan '12

Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge Provincial Conference on Active Transportation and Recreation Wednesday March 21, 2012 at the PCU Centre in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba REGISTER TODAY! Visit www.pacm.ca to register and to view the full conference brochure. Hosted by the Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba (PACM)

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[At-network] Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! Feb.11-17, 2012
by Beth McKechnie 20 Jan '12

20 Jan '12

[Please share widely and sign up your own team of family, friends, co-workers! Poster attached. Thanks] * GET MOVING WITH BOUGEONS EN HIVER: THE JACK FROST CHALLENGE!* Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! is a new event celebrating winter in Manitoba. Sign up your team of 1 to 5 to skate, bike, ski, snowshoe, or walk a combined total of 130 km during the week of February 11th to 17th. Participants will be entered in a draw for ‘cool’ prizes. Register at www.greenactioncentre.ca or call us at (204) 925-3775 or 1-866-394-8880 (toll free) for more information. A Co-Actif Epica<http://actifepi.ca/>Event. * * * * * *Soyez actif en participant à « Bougeons en hivers : The Jack Frost Challenge! »* Bougeons en hiver : The Jack Frost Challenge! est un nouvel événement célébrant l’hiver manitobaine! Inscrivez-vous en équipe d’une à cinq personnes pour faire le patinage, la bicyclette, la raquette ou la marche d’un total collectif de 130km sur une durée d’une semaine, du 11 au 17 février, 2012. Vous aurez la chance de gagner des prix. Inscrivez-vous au www.greenactioncentre.ca ou pour plus d’information composez le 1-866-394-8880 (sans frais) ou le (204) 925-3775. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Green Action Centre webinar - Tues, Jan. 24th, 1 pm
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

Join Green Action Centre Staff for a free online webinar sharing highlights and stories from Fall 2011 conferences that we attended: - *Beth McKechnie: *Complete Streets, APBP Professional Development Seminar (Charlotte, North Carolina) - *Jackie Avent and Shoni Litinsky: *Walk 21 and ASRTS Summit (Vancouver, BC) - *Jessie Klassen: *ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit (Vancouver BC) *1:00 pm, Tuesday January 24th, 2012* * * The webinar will take place on *WIMBA*, Green Action Centre's online classroom. Please sign in 20 minutes early to ensure the system functions effectively on your computer. Log-in information is below. You will need to go through an introductory wizard the first time. If you are working on a MAC computer, log in using the Safari browser. Hope you can join us on Tuesday! Sincerely, Beth, Jackie, Jessie and Shoni // Room Info Name: Green Action Centre - Manitoba URL: http://gcclive.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=greenactioncentre Room ID: greenactioncentre // Time and Duration Start Time: January 24, 2012 at 01:00 P.M. CST Duration: i hour // Phone Access Dial-in number(s): Phone - (416) 342-1934 <%28416%29%20342-1934> Phone PIN: 02501364

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ASRTS + STP: Four great webinar opportunities in January and February
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

There are four great webinar opportunities around Active and Safe Routes to School and School Travel Planning coming up! More details are below, but please feel free to join Green Action Centre staff for the Safe Routes to School and Traffic Reduction webinar on January 31st from noon-1pm at the Eco-Centre - 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue. *Tuesday, January 24, 2012 (6:30 pm CT) One hour*Sustainable Happiness, Hope & Resiliency Presenters: Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey Join Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey for an inspiring conversation about sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency. In the Summer 2011 issue of Green Teacher, Catherine and Elin introduced the concepts of sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency and why it's so important to move beyond "gloom and doom." In this webinar, they invite you to join them in a lively conversation about how these ideas are catching hold and causing ripples of optimism across the disciplines of environmental and sustainability education, health and well-being and conservation biology, and around the world. After short presentations, they will share some of the ways they are seeing this work moving out in the world so that participants can start to think of implications for their personal and professional life. *Suitability:* All formal and non-formal youth educators *Please register directly at:* http://greenteacherwebinarobrienkelsey2-eorg.eventbrite.com/ *Tuesday January 31st, 2012 (12pm CT) One hour**Pump Down the Volume: SRTS and Traffic Reduction* Presenters: Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Associate Director, National Center for Safe Routes to School Melissa Watford, Health Education Specialist, FirstHealth of the Carolinas Jason Goldsberry, Physical Education Teacher, Eagle Crest Elementary School, Longmont, CO Communities initiate Safe Routes to School programs for a variety of reasons. In an attempt to reduce the barriers for students to walk and bicycle to school, some programs focus on reducing traffic congestion and the number of cars around schools. In this sixty minute webinar, we will take a brief look at the problem of traffic congestion as it relates to SRTS and then focus on two SRTS programs that have had success in reducing congestion and measuring traffic reductions. The first program, Eagle Crest Elementary School's Step Often and Ride to School (SOAR) Program, surveyed families in order to understand travel patterns to school. After learning that 75 percent of students arrived by car, the program focused on increasing walking and bicycling rates through education and encouragement. After just one year, Eagle Crest saw a 40 percent reduction in motor vehicle traffic. The second program, Pinehurst Walks! from Pinehurst, NC, focused on encouraging the school's 650 students to become engaged as leaders in the effort to get more students walking to school. The Student Council presented neighborhood walkability recommendations to the Mayor and Village Council, resulting in a $150,000.00 allocation for a greenway to connect the elementary school to the Village. Their efforts also resulted in a 22 percent reduction in traffic volume on walking school bus days. Don't miss this chance to see how these two wonderful programs succeeding in traffic reduction efforts! This webinar is part of the Safe Routes to School Coaching Action Network Webinar Series, developed by America Walks and the National Center for Safe Routes to School. For more information please contact Michelle Gulley at mgulley(a)americawalks.org REGISTER NOW <https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/654857816> or join us at the Eco-Centre - 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue from noon - 1 pm! * **Thursday February 2, 2012 (12 pm CT) One hour* *School Travel Planning: (Shared) Knowledge is Power!* Presented in collaboration with The CAPTURE Project, as part of the Green Communities Canada School Travel Planning Series. *Brief Description* Imagine being part of a national community where you have easy access to School Travel Planning stakeholders and can share information and learnings about your respective programs, policies or initiatives. CAPTURE (Canadian Platform to Increase Usage of Real-world Evidence) recently launched a freely accessible, knowledge exchange repository to find and share practice-based evidence in health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Looking beyond the published literature, CAPTURE seeks to harness the breadth of community-based knowledge and experience. *The CAPTURE Platform facilitates* · Connecting with colleagues around the corner or across the country · Sharing knowledge and wisdom from our health promotion and chronic disease prevention experiences · Documenting reflective practice learnings – knowledge which often remains untapped or difficult to find *The webinar will feature* · An orientation to the CAPTURE Platform with examples of School Travel Planning initiatives · Guidelines to capture and share reflective practice knowledge · How to enter the CAPTURE 10-minute Challenge - *and win an iPad 2! * *Presenter* Dayna Albert, M.A. Manager, Practitioner Engagement, The CAPTURE Project Dayna holds an MA in adult education and a BSc from the University of Toronto. Dayna has six years’ experience building organizational capacity in evidence-informed practice. Previously, she worked with the Ontario Public Health Association’s Towards Evidence-Informed Practice Program. She is a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society and the American Evaluation Association. *Who Should Attend?* All School Travel Planning stakeholders (i.e. program planners, municipal partners, school-based partners, funders etc.) who are interested in learning new ways to share their work, stay abreast of what others in the field are doing and understand how to capture and profit from their reflective practice learnings. *To register, please contact dayna.albert(a)thecaptureproject.ca and provide your name, email address and time zone.* * **Wednesday February 15, 2012 (11 am CT) One hour* *Project BEAT: Integrating the key lessons of time, space and gender into STP* A WIMBA presentation as part of the Green Communities Canada School Travel Planning Series Presenters: Michelle Stone and Guy Faulkner, University of Toronto. The BEAT (Built Environment and Active Transport – www.beat.utoronto.ca<http://physical.utoronto.ca/Beat.aspx>) project, funded by CIHR and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada was a large-scale, mixed methods and multidisciplinary research programme designed to explore how such a behavioural shift towards active school transport (AST) might be supported. In a series of sequential stages and studies we addressed AST at multiple levels – national, provincial (Ontario) and local (GTA). Our work has identified the prevalence and correlates of AST in Canada, and, has resulted in the creation of a unified theoretical model of AST and the built environment through examination of the personal, family, social and environmental correlates of active school transport. The objective of this webinar is to present some of the key lessons learned from the BEAT project including data on the relationship between school travel and objectively measured physical activity levels of children. Our focus will be on three key lessons that have implications for the School Travel Planning (STP) model. We classify these lessons as three interrelated themes of *time, space and gender:* *TIME*: The main purpose of STP is to help parents/guardians overcome perceptual barriers to the practice of actively traveling to school. These barriers typically focus on safety (e.g., traffic & stranger danger). However, the STP intervention itself does not explicitly address what appear to be key issues in school travel mode choice - the parental or caregiver ascription of convenience to the various travel modes available for school trips (i.e., the theme of “time”) and the level of independent mobility granted to the child. *SPACE*: Participation in AST varies regionally and also across different types of space or neighbourhood. STP work has traditionally targeted the school environment, while our research also suggests that features of the built environment around the home play a more significant role in the school travel mode decision-making process. *GENDER*: The school travel experience is very different for girls than it is for boys. Fewer girls engage in AST and parental perceptions regarding school travel are different for girls than they are for boys. Girls are granted less independent mobility than boys; the ramifications are likely contributing to the lower levels of physical activity and less outdoor play time observed in girls. Modifications to built form may affect girls differently than they would boys. Throughout this webinar, we will provide an overview of the evidence underpinning each theme and facilitate discussion on how each lesson is, or could be, integrated into STP implementation. *Please register directly with Sandra Jones, Green Communities Canada: scjones(a)telus.net* -- *Jackie Avent* Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> | Active and Safe Routes to School 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/> Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>

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WFP: Consultation flawed: Katz
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

While I typically resist including personal comments when circulating articles, this one begs for context. The article below underscores the critical importance of pre- and post-construction counts. Users of the cycle track will certainly attest to its busyness but anecdotal evidence is not enough. It is also true that the full potential of the route was dampened this past year due to construction on Osborne Bridge, which will continue again this spring. But there now appears to be a pattern of apology at City Hall regarding AT project construction. It is common, if not seemingly mandatory, in every city building pedestrian and cycling facilities, to have backlash, usually in the form of the "insufficient consultation" argument. Winnipeg is not unique in this regard but we do seem to be establishing a habit of backtracking afterward. -Beth Consultation flawed: Katz Short shrift for firms, public on bikeway plan By: Jen Skerritt Mayor Sam Katz admits the city could have done a better job consulting the public over a bikeway project one citizen has called a "theft of democracy." On Wednesday, council's executive policy committee reviewed an audit report that identified shortcomings in the consultation process over the Assiniboine Avenue bikeway. The report said area businesses were not included in the process and public notifications should have outlined the impact the project would have on traffic. The bikeway was part of Winnipeg's major active-transportation overhaul that saw the city try to complete 35 projects within an 18-month period to make use of federal stimulus dollars. It prompted a backlash from residents and businesses, and six companies near the Midtown Bridge filed a lawsuit to try to halt construction, saying the plan would cause traffic chaos in the neighbourhood. One plaintiff on Assiniboine said he was notified about the project by a notice taped to his door. Graham Hnatiuk, a citizen journalist, told EPC the city should seek a refund since the consultant the city hired to conduct public consultations did not contact residents for their input for the on-street bike lane. Hnatiuk said he became interested in the issue after he attended a public meeting about the bikeway in 2009, and most of the people who attended were bike lobbyists. The blogger said he complained to 311 about the consultation process, and department staff did not address his concerns. Hnatiuk said Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) later helped forward his complaint directly to the city auditor. Hnatiuk said the bikeway is "sparsely used" in summer, and hundreds of cars that used the route during rush hour travel down an already gridlocked York Avenue instead. "We were right all along," he said. "The residents and businesses along Assiniboine Avenue have known all along that their input was never asked for." Bob Axford told EPC the City of Winnipeg has a governance problem and public consultations need to be improved. He suggested Winnipeg make changes to the way it approaches public consultations. "This is a complete theft of democracy," he said. Katz said he agrees that the consultant did not do a good job. He said the company had a short time frame to complete the public-consultation process due to the federal deadline. However, Katz said the firm shouldn't have taken the job if they could not complete it in the given time. He said everyone, including the mayor, councillors and the city, could have done a better job. "On this particular instance a very poor job was done," Katz said. jen.skerritt(a)freepress.mb.ca http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/consultation-flawed-katz-137654733.h… <jen.skerritt(a)freepress.mb.ca>

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Province makes "Greater Strides" on AT
by Beth McKechnie 18 Jan '12

18 Jan '12

Great news from the Province of Manitoba! In the attached letter to Janice Lukes, Chair of the Province's Active Transportation Advisory Group (ATAG), Minister Dave Chomiak has confirmed they will be acting on three key recommendations of the report generated by ATAG: 1) Develop a provincial policy to support and encourage AT; 2) Appoint a provincial director for AT; and 3) Establish an on-going public stakeholder advisory committee. In addition, the Province had committed to and has confirmed building an AT crossing at the Perimeter Hwy to connect with the popular Northeast Pioneers Greenway. This will allow peds and cyclists to safely cross the Perimeter and continue northward through East St. Paul and toward the floodway trail and Birds Hill Park. To see all of the recommendations, check out "Greater Strides: Taking Action on Active Transportation": http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/pdf/atag_report6.pdf Wonderful start to 2012! Thanks to Janice, Mark Cohoe, Anders Swanson, Russell Wychreschuk and Pat Locken for your hard work and dedication in creating this report, along with the many others who contributed to the process. cheers, Beth

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Webinar Handouts - Emerging Technologies for Ped and Bike Planning (Wed, Jan.18, 2-3:15, EcoCentre)
by Mark Cohoe 18 Jan '12

18 Jan '12

Hi, For anyone planning on attending the Emerging Technologies for Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning webinar tomorrow, handouts, slides, and a 41 page report are available for download here <http://www.apbp.org/?page=Webinar_Downloads>. Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar*"*Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning*" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Mark 475-5070 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning Wednesday, January . 2:00 to 3:15 pm CST Through a series of short presentations, this webinar will survey several applications with the potential to help engineers and planners improve conditions for bicycling and walking. gpsThe examples covered in this session will offer an overview of a range of situations where technological advances can aid professionals in their work to develop plans and programs. Due to the number of examples, attendees should plan to be in the webinar for 75 minutes. The session will include: 1. An overview of the newest web and mobile apps and devices, with suggestions for their application to the 5 Es. 2. A description of Cycloplan, an application in development at the University of Minnesota that will leverage data collected in the geo-wiki Cyclopath to create a tool for analyzing cycling networks and managing bikeways. 3. An example from St. Louis' new Gateway Bike Plan of using technology to engage the public and help build a new regional bicycle master plan. 4. Information about GPS-enabled data collection equipment used for pedestrian access inventories, plus pedestrian access shed analysis methodology. Presenters are James Andrew, Senior Transportation Planner, Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul; Terra Curtis, MCRP candidate, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; RJ Eldridge, Director of Planning, Toole Design Group; and Julie Padberg-White, Principal, FPA Group.

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Peg City Car Co-op Video Number TWO!
by Shoni Litinsky 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

I hope you all loved Peg City Car Co-op <http://pegcitycarcoop.ca>'s last video featuring our member Amanda <http://vimeo.com/34035273> - is she not adorable? Next up in our series of four videos is Chris. Chris usually travels to work by bus and bike, but finds that the car co-op helps him live more simply, visit the suburbs, and get out of awkward situations! See it here: http://vimeo.com/34035969 Also, we have recently moved a vehicle to South Osborne<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/2012/01/car2-moves-to-south-osborne/>- so if you live in that neighbourhood and have considered carsharing or would like to learn more about it. Please get in touch with me! Enjoy folks, and stay tuned for video #3 next week! -- Shoni Peg City Car Co-op Co-ops build a better world - International Year of the Co-op 2012<http://www.copac.coop/iyc/index.html> .

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Bike licences a no-go in Ottawa
by Beth McKechnie 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

*Bike licences a no-go in Ottawa: Report* By David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen January 13, 2012 OTTAWA — Licensing bicycles is too expensive and cumbersome and provides negligible benefits anywhere it’s been tried, says a new report from Ottawa’s city staff. Orléans Councillor Bob Monette asked city officials to look into the idea at the beginning of the summer, when the segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue were opening and the rights of cyclists versus pedestrians and motorists were in the news. He suggested that licensing bikes would provide a way to connect misbehaviour on the roads and paths to bikes’ owners, the way car licence plates help the police track down bad motorists. Also, a formal registry of bicycles would help the police return stolen and recovered bikes to their owners. Maybe, says the report the city has produced, but at a disproportionate cost. Several earlier looks at the idea of licensing bikes in Ottawa have concluded that the system would cost about $100,000 a year and would recover, at best, $40,000 in fees from cyclists. Worse, it would impose a barrier on would-be cyclists, who’d have to go through an extra layer of bureaucracy before they could legally ride — when the city actually wants people to take to their bikes because they don’t significantly contribute to traffic congestion and put less wear and tear on roads. Enforcing the rules would be extra complicated because Gatineau cyclists mix with Ottawans and it’d be difficult to put a licensing requirement on them, and the city would also have to find a way to make the licensing regime work with services like the National Capital Commission’s Bixi bike-rentals. “Given the foregoing limited benefits and significant challenges, and primarily based on the fact that bicycle licensing would act as a significant barrier to cycling, it is recommended that bicycle licensing not be implemented in the City of Ottawa,” the report concludes, though it notes that there might be some value in a voluntary registration system for recovering lost and stolen bikes. Some cities, including Ottawa, have had bike-licensing systems in the distant past, but no city of any size does now. Regina has such a bylaw on the books, but in practice it’s not enforced; the system has been handed off to a community association, which operates it like a voluntary registry. Besides Monette’s inquiry, there was virtually no political will for a licensing system at the city council table. Mayor Jim Watson said at the time that he’d oppose any effort to pass one. dreevely(a)ottawacitizen.com © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Bike+licences+Ottawa+Report/5991981/story… -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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