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Walk21 Munich update

Canada Walks' Director Jacky Kennedy is just back from the Walk21 conference, hosted by

the City of Munich

Wonderful sums it all up! Munich is a very pretty, green city

and so easy to get around on foot with excellent transit services. It was great to catch up

with all of our international walking colleagues and hear all of their news. Congratulations

to the organizing team for Munich Walk21 2013. Hope to see everyone in October 2014

in Sydney, Australia!!

News from Canada Walks http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs139/1101954641760/archive/11151...

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Munich celebrates Walk21: Canada Walks' Jacky Kennedy with Walk21's Bronwen

Thornton at the Munich Rauthaus (City Hall)

Over 500 delegates attended, 16 from Canada. See the photos from the conference .


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Canada Walks was an active participant in the conference: Jacky was a corresponding

member of the program committee; presented two papers, one on Children's Mobility in

Canada and another on WALK Friendly Ontario. Canada Walks also hosted a

pre-conference workshop as part of the Walk21 Munich activities and it was well attended

with representatives from Germany, U.S.A., Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, Switzerland,

Austria, Australia and, of course, Canada.

The children's mobility issues and challenges we face here in Canada are the same ones

experienced all around the world - children are less active than their parents, more and more

families choose only their car to get around, and there is an overwhelming perception that

streets are unsafe for children. However, despite these common challenges, they present

some great opportunities to reverse this trend and through international collaboration and

sharing of best practices we can create a strong momentum for change. Stay tuned for

action from this group and let us know if you wish to participate.

Biking to school is more common than driving in Germany

A common theme throughout the entire conference was an awakening by local authorities

that active transportation, especially walking, are important to the health and economic

vibrancy of our towns and cities, yet funding from all government levels continues to be

lacking. We heard that transportation should be considered within the context of the social

determinants of health and that significant public health benefits can accrue when

investments in active travel are made.

Conference venue - Deutsches Museum's

Transport Centre (Verkehrszentrum)


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Enjoying the festivities

One of the most entertaining and inspiring keynote presentations was from Jason Roberts

from Dallas, Texas. Jason is the founder of the Oak Cliff Transit

Authority, originator of the Better Block Project, co-founder of the Art

Conspiracy and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, and a recent candidate for

U.S. Congress. Jason shared his journey with the group, from

founding the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, which successfully garnered a

$23M US federal grant to reintroduce a modern streetcar system from

downtown Dallas to Oak Cliff. Jason's unique ability to take an idea

and turn it into reality is truly remarkable. The Better Block Project has

been adapted by communities across the U.S. and around the world,

which all started when Jason used his creativity to revitalize a long

abandoned theatre in his neighbourhood thereby inspiring community members into action.

See Jason's Ted Talk.

We heard about the One Neighbourhood, 1 month, 0 cars! initiative that took place in

Suwon, South Korea, during September as part of the EcoMobility World Festival 2013.

Read the stories and experiences from this amazing event, organized by ICLEI (Local

Governments for Sustainability), UN Habitat, and the City of Suwon. Walk21's Bronwen

Thornton was a presenter and participant:

"The Suwon Eco-mobility festival, a car-free neighbourhood for a whole month, was a bold

undertaking by for a forward thinking city administration. It was lovely to walk around the

refurbished streets and enjoy the additional festival elements, such as artworks, cafes and

street theatre. It reminded me of towns all over the world with car free/low car

neighbourhoods at their hearts, such as Gamla Stan in Stockholm, the medinas of Morocco

or Dubrovnik inside the castle walls, neighbourhoods that were built to human scale and

must manage vehicles out of the space. So it is not an unique concept but it provides us

with a sense of what's possible and how to get there, as we begin the social shift needed to

move towards more sustainable mobility patterns in our cities. And in answer to the

inevitable question, I said: I think the cars will come back, but hopefully the experience of

the festival, the newfound joy in the public spaces and the physical improvements to the

street scape will temper the extent to which vehicles are allowed to overtake the

neighbourhood again."

-Ms Bronwen Thornton

Development Director

An interesting session presented on Walking for Life - Norway's National Walking Strategy.

Commissioned by the Norwegian Government, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration

(NPRA)'s plan, will have two main objectives:


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* Walking should appeal to everyone

* More people should walk more

Principles and targets of the strategy will include: 80% of children walking to school; creating

the'10 minute' city - where trips can be made through a continuous network; and undertaking

universal design principles to achieve their goals. A 2009 travel survey showed that 16% of

Norwegians did not report any journeys on foot, while 68% reported walking for part of their

journey. The average Norwegian walks approximately 1.7 km/day; 51% walk less than 500

m per day (including walking to other means of transport); while 19% walk 1.5 km or

more. Wouldn't it be something if Canada were to undertake a national walking strategy or

even if our individual provinces undertook this work!

Throughout the conference there was general agreement that far more attention needs to be

paid to vulnerable road users - children and seniors - and that walking should be a human

right and given the highest priority in transportation planning. One speaker noted that by

2050 22% of the world's population will be over 60; planning and developing walking

infrastructure to allow older persons to stay active in their communities will be key to

reducing soaring global health costs and allowing people to stay in their homes much longer.

See video from Transport Forum.

Mayors sign the International Charter for Walking. Hep

Monatzeder, Mayor of Munich; Miguel Anxo F. Lores, Mayor of

Pontevedra; Ahmet Omi, Mayor of Shkodra; Graham Jahn,

Development & Transport, Sydney. and Jim Walker, Walk21

Green Communities' Canada Walks is now a board member of the International

Federation of Pedestrians.


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Canada Walks Around the country:

In addition to Walk21 Munich, over the past few months we have visited and presented at:

* Canadian Institute of Planners INFUSE conference, July 6-8, 2013 in

Vancouver, BC. Canada Walks made a joint presentation on School Lesson:

Transportation, Healthy Kids, and School Site Selection, with Mark Seasons of

University of Waterloo and Janet Barlow from Nova Scotia's Ecology Action

Centre. A highlight of the conference was speaker Candy Chang, artist,

designer, urban planner and author of an inspiring project, Before I Die, to be

released later this year. The session Oh Canada: Canadian Urbanism from

Coast to Coast, chaired by David Gordon from Queen's University noted that recent

research points out that Canada is actually more suburban than urban, with cities like

Montreal having 78% population living in suburbia, 16% in the 'active core' and 6% are

ex-urban (rural). Nationally 67% of Canadians live in suburbia, which creates a distinctively

Canadian urbanism compared to other countries like the UK and Australia

* Canada Walks WALK Friendly Program Manager and Geoff Noxon of Noxon Associates

led a walkability workshop and facilitated walking audits in three communities in the

Municipality of Trent Hills - Hastings, Warkworth and Campbellford. The walkability event

was organized by the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit with enthusiastic

support from municipal stakeholders.

* Kate Hall and Don Grant, Grant Consulting, co-presented How Walkable is your Town? at

the Ontario Eastern Municipalities conference in Kingston.

* Kate was one of four presenters in a walking related webinar hosted by ParticipACTION.

Co-presenters were Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, Alberta Health Services

and the BC Medical Association.

Canada Walks Webinar Series: Bikeability for School Children. Review the archive of

this well attended webinar, with featured speakers Peter Zanzottera of Steer Davies Greave

in the UK; Kerry Hamilton of HASTe BC in Vancouver; Eleanor McMahon of Share the Road

in Ontario; and Sasha Alexov of Physical and Health Education Canada in Ottawa. Please

join us in a Canadian discussion on bicycle education for children; every child has the right

to choose safe and enjoyable mobility in their neighbourhoods and, when combined with the

right infrastructure, cycling and pedestrian education can boost their confidence and create a

life long love for active travel.


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Canada's Favourite Crossing Guard: Do you know a crossing guard in your area who has

gone above and beyond the call of duty to help children get to school safely? Enter him or

her in "Canada's Favourite Crossing Guard Contest," run by Parachute, a national charity

dedicated to preventing injury and saving lives, and FedEx Express Canada. The winning

crossing guards will receive $500 and an engraved plaque and the school will receive $500.

Applications accepted until November 22, 2013.

Some links to share:

* Living Streets, UK

* PediBus, Switzerland (French)

* U.S. training for Walking School Buses

* Victoria, Australia: http://vichealth.vic.gov.au/wsb/

* Safe Kids Worldwide

* Video by Safe Kids Worldwide

* Teen programs: Free Your Feet (UK)

* Campaign in a Box (UK)

* Traffic Snake Game, Belgium

* Cities for People

* Car free days

* UN Decade for Action on Road Safety

* SUSTRANS UK

* Bikeability, UK

* '20 is Plenty for us' campaign, UK

Canada Walks can help you meet your walkability goals!

We offer a full range of workshops and consulting services to help you:


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You can find out more information about our services here or contact us for details.

Incentive items for active school travel initiatives can be ordered through M.P. Russo &Associates www.mprusso.com.

Let them know you heard of them through us!

Canada Walks Walkolution News profiles actions across Canadaundertaken by Green Communities Canada and our many localpartners to help create communities where walking is safe, easy,enjoyable, and inviting. By making a donation to the Green

Communities Foundation you can provide vital support for this work. Just click on the Donate Nowbutton and indicate in the comments section that you'd like your gift to go to the work of CanadaWalks.

Our Partners


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Canada Walks

Tel: 416.488.7263

Toll free: 1.877.533.4098, ext. 411

Fax: 416.488.2296

Email: [email protected]


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Walkolution News ‐ Special WALK21 Munich updatecanadawalks.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/... · Happiness Facebook pages! Follow us on Twitter at @walkfriendlyON and @CanadaWalks