Why Sidewalks Are Important

Avi Friedman from McGill University is in town today and tomorrow with two of his architectural students to do consultations about tourism and downtown revitalization. I expect we'll hear a thing or two about community walkability along with many more thought-provoking ideas.

A new study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine that looked at data from 11,541 survey participants in 11 countries came to the conclusion, according to this article, that "those who live in an urban neighborhood are twice as likely to be physically active as those in the suburbs," with the most important factor being "accessibility to sidewalks."

The article goes on to say that the study found that "Those individuals who reported living in a city neighborhood with easy access to sidewalks were 15-50 percent more likely to get moderate-to vigorous activity at least five days a week for at least 30 minutes each day."

Peace River has lots of sidewalks as well as the paved paths along the dike and up the West Hill. This valley is so beautiful--let's take the time to savour it by walking, biking or taking the bus to work or activities, even just once in awhile. It's good for the environment and good for our bodies!

Virtual Conference: A Big Success

Do you ever get tired of travelling long distances to attend meetings or conferences or to see specialists or clients? I know I do!

On Halloween, over 200 people at more than 20 videoconferencing sites around Alberta attended an all-day conference without having to go far from home. Wow, we learned so much about the potential for broadband and videoconferencing in rural areas as well as about the continuing challenges.

The day was called Using Rural Connections to Support Alberta's Rural Development Strategy, hosted by Communities without Boundaries (CwoB), an organization dedicated to supporting and developing "local coalitions of community champions and technology providers to promote broadband usage."

Here in Peace River, we had 14 people gathered at the Community Futures Peace Country office, the largest gathering north of Edmonton, I'm proud to say.

The day was ably hosted by the Town of Three Hills Mayor Kevin Edwards, who has been a leader in the Virtual Learning & Business Centre (VLBC) CLICSite (Collaboration, Learning, Innovation Community) project. This is a great example of collaboration and broadband usage in a rural area.

We heard speakers on a wide variety of topics, and while I expected to be interested in the sessions on libraries, telehealth and education, I hadn't expected to be engaged in something like the presentation by Dr. Sandra Honour on the Alberta Livestock & Meat Strategy, but I was! (This link is to a video from FarmTV; Dr. Honour's PowerPoint presentation along with the others is available on the CwoB website. Podcasts will also be available in the coming weeks.)

The day was made up of short panel presentations hosted by knowledgeable people who outlined the opportunities and challenges or described their own use of broadband. One of the hosts was in Hawaii, which just served to further highlight the versatility of videoconferencing. We heard excellent presentations in the following five areas:

• Education (host: Cathy King)
• Health Care (host: Brenda Poole)
• Rural Economic Activity (host: Darcy Ferguson)
• Rural Quality of Life (Host: Jann Beeston)
• First mile/Last Mile (Host: Craig Montgomerie)

I suspect others felt as I did that we'd like to hear more from a number of these speakers at future sessions.

Have a look at the PowerPoint presentations and keep an eye out for the podcasts. Consider ways that broadband and greater use of videoconferencing could make a difference to your work, leisure, health, or quality of life and stay tuned for future learning opportunities through CwoB.

del.icio.us Tags: rural,quality of life,videoconferencing,Alberta