Promoting community health by expanding the City of Greater Sudbury’s Active Transportation Network to target youth.

Abstract

As the second most obese city in Canada, the City of Greater Sudbury needs to take measures to combat this health epidemic. This paper begins by exploring the links between active transportation and community health. The current state of active transportation in the City of Greater Sudbury is then assessed and the factors that influence the adoption of active transportation are discussed. The possibility of creating infrastructure with the aim of encouraging youth to actively commute is explored, as well as are the benefits of pursuing such an aim. Cycling-specific infrastructure in the neighbourhoods surrounding schools would be beneficial and a geographic information system is used to model the roads in Greater Sudbury that could be developed to encourage youth to cycle.