Designing for Health in Alberta HEALTHY
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PLACES Designing for Health in Alberta HEALTHY WHAT THAT MEANS, WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE & HOW PUBLIC POLICY CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN HEALTHY PLACES 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Introduction 6 About Active Neighbourhoods Canada 8 Healthy Places in the Making 10 Why Healthy Places? 18 What do Healthy Places Look Like? 30 The Policies That Make Healthy Places 34 Conclusion A project of Sustainable Calgary’s WHAT IS A HEALTHY PLACE? Active Neighbourhoods An environment that Canada program promotes healthy behaviour like walking, cycling, socializing, playing and CREDITS Authors: Celia R. Lee and Katie J. Lore healthy eating for those of Editor: Roxanne LeBlanc Design: Fran Motta all ages, incomes, genders Renderings: Matthew Knapik Published March 2019 and cultural backgrounds. 2 SUSTAINABLE CALGARY INTRODUCTION Changing the built environment could significantly influence people’s daily Are we building communities for health? air quality. Transportation options help people get to physical activity. Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam work on time and reduce employee turnover. Healthy devoted her first publication in office to designing places increase productivity and reduce health care costs. healthy communities. It recognizes that the way we build Healthy places are attractive to tourists and prospective cities and communities contributes to disturbing health workers alike. — DR. THERESA TAM, CHIEF PUBLIC OFFICER OF HEALTH trends, and to the leading causes of death faced by It is time to scale up. Cities and communities have Canadians today. been taking action, creating policies and projects to Throughout history, we have adapted our cities to make their places healthier. For five years, we have respond to our most pressing health concerns – think engaged communities in Alberta in a participatory sanitation, public parks, emissions regulation. Health planning and co-design process towards that same goal. trends suggest we are facing a new health crisis. While We can leverage all of this work for greater impact. In our medical system has responded expertly, we haven’t this booklet, we share our research and co-design work, taken sufficient strides to reverse the root causes of and put forward policy recommendations that emerged these issues, which lie outside the scope of medicine from community conversations, subject matter experts and within the realm of the built environment and its and our own design explorations. We want to start a effect on human behaviour. conversation about healthy places in Alberta, and the Rates of diabetes and obesity are on the rise. We role of policy in making them happen. The overarching are increasingly sedentary. We spend too much time goal we propose: that all new provincial infrastructure in vehicles. Our cities reflect this car dependency, with projects demonstrate how they support healthy and most urban growth occurring in low-density suburbs. equitable built environments. A comprehensive approach We know these trends – health, urban form, vehicle use will allow Alberta to scale up, invest, and commit to – are related. They are also at odds with what we hear building a province of healthy places. about the aspirations of Albertans, who value physical activity in daily life, recreation and tourism. We want human connection. We want places where our kids Celia R. Lee, Program Director can be active and safe, and places where our seniors Katie J. Lore, Research and Community Liaison can age happily. Noel Keough, Sustainable Calgary President Adapting the built environment can improve health. Many people have been involved in research, community action, government programs and policy, and private investments to make change happen. As you’ll see in this booklet, the solutions to this health crisis look and feel great! Consider communities that are safe for children and seniors, that create places to bump into neighbours, where amenities and transportation options are accessible and available to all. Healthy places have multiple benefits across sectors, levels of government, ministries and departments. Healthy places are climate-friendly. They contribute to better 4 SUSTAINABLE CALGARY HEALTHY PLACES 5 ABOUT ACTIVE NEIGHBOURHOODS CANADA The Participatory Planning Process How can the design of communities 1. LAUNCH Establish a partnership with local stakeholders and lay out an contribute to public action plan. 2. health and health UNDERSTAND Create a portrait of the use equity? of public space. 3. EXPLORE Identify design scenarios that will meet needs and resolve issues. 4. DECIDE With the various stakeholders, validate and improve upon the developed solutions. This question inspired the development of Active We focus on communities experiencing lower than 5. Neighbourhoods Canada (ANC), a partnership of the average incomes or those with higher proportions of new ACT Montreal Urban Ecology Centre, the Centre for Active Canadians, because these places are often underserved Participatory planning is Implement the design Transportation, and Sustainable Calgary. Funded by the when it comes to active transportation infrastructure, and an approach to designing solutions and advocate for Public Health Agency of Canada, we work with commu- as a result experience health inequities. Our approach active, liveable cities, citizen visions. nities to design walkable, bikeable and liveable places. is uniquely founded on the connection between health which makes urban We have developed a co-design approach that brings equity, community participation, and built environments planning accessible, com- citizens, design professionals and decision-makers that support active transportation. munity-driven, and fun. It is together to identify and work toward changes in their Through this program, Sustainable Calgary has grounded in the belief that 6. neighbourhoods. Our approach makes urban planning worked with over 1200 community members, collabo- blending local and expert accessible, community-driven and fun. We believe that rated with more than 20 governmental and non-profit knowledge leads to strong CELEBRATE blending local and expert knowledge leads to strong organizations, and 75+ professionals in design and outcomes. We work on the infrastructure, and outcomes. planning – and we’ve been taking notes! Now in Phase neighbourhood scale, and placemaking all inform We have used this approach in 12 communities, with 3 of our work, we are scaling up. We continue our take an integrated view residents’ experiences each organization working with four communities in their core work in communities, while also sharing what of planning. Since land of their neighbourhoods, province. In Alberta, we work with three urban and one we’ve learned to inform policy, professional practice use, urban design, we involve professionals rural community. and curriculum. architecture, transportation across these disciplines. 6 SUSTAINABLE CALGARY 7 1960s 1990s 2010s Healthy Places in the Making — Vision Zero A boom of research, dissemination and action Vision Zero is approved by the Writing on the links between active transportation, health and the built environment surges. Adapting cities for health since Swedish Parliament. Fatalities The Canadian Institute of Health Research identifies healthy cities as one of their priority decrease 30.7% 1980-2016, areas, and the Centre for Healthy Communities is founded at the University of Alberta. and Sweden has the lowest In Alberta, traffic safety strategies focus on the relationship between street design, 3000BC rate of fatalities at 27/million behaviour and safety. Communities experiment with tactical urbanism, cycling inhabitants. The Vision Zero infrastructure, “road diets” and new speed policies. movement spreads across the world. Air Quality 2011 - Obesity rates 3000 BC 1850s – 1910s – New and numerous air quality triple among Canadians, regulations in Canada lead 1985-2011. 2015 2017 Skara Brae, Scotland The Cycle Track is built in East Village in Calgary is to substantial air quality Earliest record of 1890s - Rates of diabetes Calgary, following the Peace designed with a commercial 1920s improvements. 2014 separate fresh and The Lungs of the City The Rise of the Personal Places for People increase by 39% in Alberta, Bridge in 2012. Cycling sees street dedicated to pedestri- waste-water systems. Frederick Law Olmsted Vehicle Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl focus 2003-2014. a 50% increase for work trips ans and the first parking-less frames parks as the on building ‘places for people’, 2012-2018. building. Personal vehicle use - SOx emissions in “lungs of the city” and as where people can walk, enjoy each 2014 increases. Collisions increase, Canada have decreased The City of Edmonton an important opportunity others’ company, and frequent local and are met with backlash 71%, 1990-2014. adopts Vision Zero. for recreation and from concerned parents businesses. Their analysis and tools 1996 - “City Repair” group is exercise for all. and citizens. The concept of contribute to the field of Planning. born in Portland, in response “jaywalking” is born. 400s BC Places for “Superhighways” to a fatal collision with a Hippocrates: On Airs, Highway 401, the Don Valley Parkway child. They focus on what will Edmonton’s first Waters & Places and Autoroute Metropolitaine become known as tactical Hours spent driving dedicated bike A warning against 1890s - “Water Closet are built. Interestingly, Calgary urbanism. is correlated with swamp-living. Ames” (Herbert Brown shelves the proposed “Downtown lanes lead to 1998