Active Transportation (AT) is integral to climate action, economic development, and positive health outcomes. Specifically, transportation is responsible for 34% of municipalities’ emissions in Alberta; commercial districts derive proven benefits from pedestrian and cycling infrastructure through increased property values and sales; and physical inactivity contributes to chronic disease, the leading cause of death in Alberta.

When focused on school community settings, Active School Travel (AST) confers additional benefits for students through improved preparedness to learn and through reduced congestion in school zones, improving road safety for all road users. An urgent opportunity exists to consolidate the work of communities, schools, researchers, and advocates into a central charter to inform local spending and plans that support AT, AST, and their many co-benefits.

Charting Common Ground leverages the shared spaces, resources, and interests of school boards and municipalities to develop and adopt an Active Travel Charter in Leduc, Alberta. The purpose of the Charter is to help identify and govern resources and responsibilities between the two local school jurisdictions and the municipality, for the benefit of all community members.

The development of a Charter is positioned to improve school and community active transportation through three primary strategies:

1. Policy change and/or implementation (school board and municipal),
2. Increased investment in AT, and
3. Pilot program development. To extend the investment of this planning project, the Charter could serve as a template to be adopted in other communities to support common ground between school jurisdictions and municipalities in Alberta and beyond.

History/Milestones

Ever Active Schools has deep routes in Leduc, Alberta. Director Brian Torrance co-chairs the Healthy Hearts Committee; Mayor Bob Young has served as chair of the Ever Active Schools Board of Directors; and EAS has led Active School Travel projects in Leduc since 2019. The role of EAS in this project is to facilitate community conversations for stakeholders who wish to participate in the active transportation (AT) charter consultation process; work alongside stakeholders to develop Leduc's Common Ground AT Charter; promote, implement and monitor adoption of the Charter; prototype and pilot programs to increase AST and AT; and, finally, to scale this work to other municipalities.

Actions

Rarely do we talk about transportation (active or otherwise), let alone transportation charters, so the main challenges have been increasing community excitement and awareness of project. That said, after participants attend one of the EAS-led information sessions, they are more informed, engaged, and interested in moving on to the consultation stage. We have worked with local partners to ensure that we are connecting with as many demographics as possible in the City of Leduc (youth, seniors, community associations, school divisions, businesses, etc).

Progress/Outcomes

"This is exciting for Leduc. It's wonderful to be invited into such an important undertaking." – Teacher, Black Gold School Division

The Charter officially launched in September 2023 with support from a variety of stakeholders. EAS will promote, implement and monitor adoption of the Charter, and prototype and pilot programs to increase AST and AT. Read more about the process of building the charter in this blog post.