February 13^th is Winter Bike to Work Day. How many Winnipeggers use active transportation to get to work year-round?

Peg tells us…

21.8% of downtown residents walk or bike to work as their primary mode of transportation, compared to 7.98% of Winnipeggers overall.

The facts are:

• In the last ten years, the percentage of Winnipeggers walking or biking to work as their primary mode of transportation has decreased slightly, from 7.92% in 2001 to 7.59% in 2011.
• Downtown (21.8%), River Heights (11.87%), and St. Boniface (9.44%) had the highest percentage of residents walking or biking to work, while Assiniboine South (3.26%), Seven Oaks (3.49%) and Transcona (4.1%) had the lowest.

Definitions:

• The active transportation indicator shows the percentage of people who walk or bicycle as their primary mode of transportation to work.
• This indicator does not take into account individual variation in the mode of transportation taken to work. For example, someone who drives a car to work 60 per cent of the time and bicycles 40 per cent of the time would only be recorded as using a car.
• This indicator does not count outings not related to work, and does not take into account differences in distance.

Why does this matter?

• Active transportation is being increasingly embraced by cities as a transportation mode that provides multiple benefits, including improved citizen health, decreased road damage, better air quality, decreased costs to commuters, increased social interactions and even higher property values (City of Winnipeg, 2011).
• Active transportation is closely linked to the natural environment, in that it is a carbon-free mode of transportation and does not impact air quality.
• Active transportation has a close connection with health. The World Health Organization (2002) reports physical inactivity causes roughly 3.2 million deaths each year. Moderate physical activity, such as walking and cycling, reduces the risk of illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer and depression. Using active transportation to get to work can provide enough activity to obtain these health benefits.
• Active transportation also relates closely to the built environment. When cities provide well-maintained and interconnected bike lanes and walking paths, as well as features such as traffic calming, their citizens will be more likely to use active transportation (Frank et al., 2006; Winters et al., 2010).

* More detail and source data for the above facts available at http://www.mypeg.ca/more-info, under the Active Transportation tab

More facts on this subject available at:

Peg data:  http://www.mypeg.ca/explorer#ActiveTransportation

Source of the data:  Statistics Canada

Media inquiries:

For interviews on Peg, the data, or to be connected with organizations making a difference in the community, please contact:

Sumeep Bath

Media and Communications Officer

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

(204) 958-7740

[email protected]

About us:

Peg is a community indicator system that measures the health of our community year over year – in ways that count. Peg is led by two partnering organizations – the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and United Way of Winnipeg (UW).

Regularly, the team at Peg releases data and facts that help us understand our city better. This is one of those regular reports. Others can be found at http://www.mypeg.ca/blog.

Peg is the starting place for Winnipeg citizens, educators, policy makers, and many others to learn more about our city so we can lead change to create a better city for our children and their children. At Peg we can all learn how our lives, our neighbourhood and our city is changing – for the good and the bad. Learn more at www.mypeg.ca.