Ottawa - Walking Around the World: Innovation and inspiration for better pedestrian environments

Wednesday June 29^th, 2011Champlain Room, Ottawa City Hall, 7pm

Dr Rodney Tolley, Conference Director, Walk21;Honorary Research Fellow, Staffordshire University (UK)
Active living is a way of life that integrates physical activity into daily routines. Evidence shows that compact, mixed use, walkable and cycle-friendly environments can encourage active living that has associated health, economic, environmental and social benefits. In spite of this, car-oriented communities persist, – though there are powerful demographic and economic forces now at work to achieve active living.

Rodney Tolley will argue that the creation of environments supportive of active living requires collaborative partnerships between all levels of government and other agencies. Using examples from around the world, he will draw attention to the remarkable resurgence in active travel in the past decade and demonstrate how cities are re-evaluating past development paradigms –in order to achieve liveability and sustainability in the future.