TMU researchers part of national team to secure $3 million in funding to support healthy cities

A pan-Canadian team of over 50 researchers, city planners, and community groups has received a $3 million Healthy Cities Implementation Science Team Award (external link)  from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). These funds will support the national “Building CapaCITY/É for Sustainable Transportation (external link) ” (CapaCITY/É) project which aims to catalyze the implementation of sustainable transportation interventions to support health, mobility and equity outcomes in cities. 

The CapaCITY/É project focuses on two key interventions: All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bicycling networks, and speed reduction strategies. Project members will be partnering with city planners, community groups and other stakeholders in several Canadian cities. Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) professors Anne Harris and Linda Rothman, from the School of Occupational and Public Health,  are co-principal applicants and professor Raktim Mitra, from the School of Urban and Regional Planning is a co-applicant with CapaCITY/É. The TMU research team will be leading the project in Toronto as well as collaborating with investigators carrying out the project in other locations across Canada. 

This research comes at an important time, with the federal government launching its first National Active Transportation Strategy (external link) , investing $400 million in active transportation and $14.9 billion in public transit over the next eight years.

“As we work towards healthy and sustainable transportation, we need to prevent injuries that can have life altering consequences,” says Harris. “Road design and infrastructure are some of the best studied ways to prevent injuries. This project will help us learn more about how to get these established interventions out onto the ground where they best can protect Canadians moving around our cities.” 

“This project is an exciting multidisciplinary national collaboration of researchers, policy makers and knowledge users devoted to creating safe mobility in Canadian cities for everyone,” says Rothman. “Equitable access to safe active transportation infrastructure, with a focus on speed reduction, is essential to reduce injury and improve the health of Canadians and meet our sustainable transportation goals.”  

"The CapaCITY/É research program will bring together partners from all over Canada, and together, we will work toward developing a better understanding of how active transportation planning can contribute to healthier, safer and equitable communities. Results from this study will advance the Canadian approach to sustainable transportation systems planning,” says Mitra.

The CapaCITY/É project is an initiative involving multiple Canadian academics. The project will be guided by nominated principal applicant Meghan Winters from Simon Fraser University, principal applicant Marie-Soleil Cloutier from Institut Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, and principal applicant Daniel Fuller from the University of Saskatchewan. Other leads in the project include:

• Sara Kirk, principal applicant – Dalhousie University
• Martine Shareck, principal applicant (Early Career Researcher) – Université de Sherbrooke
• Jennifer Tomasone, principal applicant – Queen’s University
• Andrew Howard, principal applicant – The Hospital for Sick Children
• Alison Macpherson, principal applicant – York University
• Yan Kestens, principal applicant – Université de Montréal
• Sarah Moore, principal applicant (Early Career Researcher) – Dalhousie University

The Healthy Cities Implementation Science Team Award was launched as a part of the CIHR Healthy Cities Research Initiative and in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Over $27 million in research funding will be distributed over the next six years.