CHASE - Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment

Active transportation (AT), such as walking and biking, is a healthy way for children to explore their environment and develop independence. However, children can be injured while walking and biking and these injuries can be severe when children are hit by motor vehicles. Many Canadian cities make changes to the built environment (BE) (e.g., traffic calming features, separated bike lanes) to try and keep people safe. There is some research on how effective these changes are in preventing adult pedestrians and bicyclists from getting hurt, but very little research has been done to show how safe various environments are for children and youth. Our research program will study how features of the BE affect whether kids walk or bike to school and whether or not certain BE features increase or decrease their likelihood of getting hurt. Our program is unique because we are partnering with injury prevention professionals, provincial and municipal governments, environmental and not-for-profit organizations and traffic safety professionals who are in a position to help us better understand what features of traffic environments are dangerous or safe. Our team’s national scope will be invaluable in providing information regarding the variability in BE characteristics and is vital to producing evidence based recommendations that will increase safe AT.