{"id":38478,"date":"2024-07-31T19:35:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T19:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/?p=38478"},"modified":"2024-08-08T13:37:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T13:37:21","slug":"carsp-snn-video-interview-transcript-summer-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/news\/carsp-news\/carsp-snn-video-interview-transcript-summer-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"CARSP SNN Video Interview Transcript (Summer 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"Date:<\/strong> July 11, 2024
\nInterviewer:<\/strong> Dr. Emily McCullogh, York University, member of the CARSP editorial board
\nInterviewee:<\/strong> Dr. Alison Macpherson, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and
\nHealth Science at York University, prominent injury prevention and road safety public health
\nresearcher, and advocate. Dr. Macpherson will be sharing insights regarding the substantive
\nlinks between safe and sustainable transportation and meaningful action against climate
\nchange.<\/p>\n

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> Can you tell us a fun fact about yourself?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Sure. I think something that is perhaps a bit unusual about me is I have, in the course of
\nmy research and personal career, visited 30 countries around the world. But I have never been to
\nScotland, which is the country that my ancestors settled from.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> How did you get involved in the injury prevention and road safety world?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Well, that is a bit of a long story. I actually started my career in health administration and
\nI was working as a manager at the Montreal Children's Hospital. At that time Dr. Barry Pless,
\nwho is Canada's preeminent injury researcher and formed the foundation of Injury Research in
\nCanada and around the world, had just started the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and
\nPrevention (CHIRP) program at children's hospitals across Canada, including the Montreal
\nchildren's hospital. I was a manager and our staff were responsible for handing the form to
\nparents and giving them instructions on how to fill it out. And at that time, which was the early
\n1990s, injuries were really seen as just an accident. A kid got hit by a car, \u201cOh, it is an accident.\u201d
\nA school bus ran over a kid on the way to school, \u201cOh, it is an accident.\u201d But looking at the
\nCHIRP forms and seeing all the children coming to the emergency department, I realized that
\ninjury was actually a huge child health problem and that children were getting injured doing
\nthings that they shouldn't be getting injured doing, such as being hit by cars when they are
\ncrossing the street. So, my career changed. I decided to pursue a master's in epidemiology and
\nbiostatistics at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Berry Pless and that study was
\npart of an international study, looking at child pedestrian injuries and children's exposure to
\ncars. So, we were counting how many cars, how many streets children crossed on their way to
\nschool and home from school, and how that was associated with the child pedestrian injury rate.
\nSo, that was my first step into it. I have always been passionate that children should be safe to
\nwalk and bike to school, to the park, so that they can enjoy their environment. It promotes
\nhealthy child development, and it also promotes sustainable transportation.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> How is safe and sustainable transportation connected to action against climate change?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Every time you get somebody out of a car and into a more sustainable mode of
\ntransportation, the carbon footprint decreases. That is the simple answer. But it is not actually
\nthat simple. In North America and other parts of the world, including Australia and the US, we
\nhave designed our cities and our environment to be very car-friendly. Traditionally, the job of
\ntraffic engineers has been to get cars from their point of departure to their destination as quickly
\nand seamlessly as possible. This has created an environment that is unsafe for pedestrians and
\ncyclists. The car-centric environment means there are signs for pedestrians to yield to cars and a lack of bike lanes, for example. It is hard for people to get around by bike if there is no network of bike lanes.<\/p>\n

When I first came to Toronto in 1998, I was set on biking from my home to my place of
\nemployment, which was at Sick Kids Hospital, and it was terrifying. I chose to switch modes of
\ntransportation because I did not feel safe biking. So, if transportation is not safe people will
\nchoose modes that are safer and the default mode often tends to be the car. If active
\ntransportation is safe, many more people will walk and bike. Some people say, \u201cit is too cold in
\nCanada to bike in the winter.\u201d Well, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto have made major strides
\nin making bike lanes safe by clearing snow. So, if bike lanes are open people will bike. They
\nhave great biking mitts, they dress up warmly, and they ride their bikes year round. So, I think
\nsafe transportation is the foundation of all of this because, as I said earlier, if people don't feel
\nsafe, they will not walk and bike. If we are serious about climate change and we are serious
\nabout promoting sustainable transportation and safety of vulnerable road users, or people not in
\ncars, safe transportation has to be of paramount importance.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> It sounds like the design of the built environment has a huge impact on people's desire
\nto choose that type of travel because amenities are further away in these car-centric urban
\ncenters.<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Yes, first and foremost, the built environment is what has to change. Sidewalks have to
\nconnect, streets have to be slower, and we need an all ages and abilities bicycle network, so
\nthat people who are just starting out to bike can feel safe and protected from cars all the way
\nalong their journey, not just on the part that is along the waterfront or the part that is along Bloor
\nStreet in Toronto. It has to be a network, we need to change the built environment.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> Do you have any advice for our CARSP members on how to start projects or initiatives
\nthat promote safe and sustainable transportation to combat climate change?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Fundamentally, it comes down to partnerships. For me, this is not an academic
\nexercise. I don't spend time sitting alone in my office thinking about how to make things safer.
\nWe have to work in partnership with municipalities and other levels of government because it is their policies around the built environment on our roadways that need to change. We also need
\npartnerships with academics across the country. Finally, we can't forget our community partners
\nand advocacy groups. For example, Parachute Canada has been a key partner in every
\nresearch project that I have ever done because they have their ear to the ground. They do a lot
\nof Knowledge Translation. They share results of studies in a way that is digestible. Also other
\norganizations such as the bicycling organizations (the pro-bike folks) and Ever Active Schools
\n(people in the schoolboards who are trying to get kids to walk and bike to school), we need to
\nharness the energy from those partners as well, and remember that it took quite a long time to
\nmake our roads this car-centric. It is going to take a long time to make them safer and we will
\nface very active opposition from people who are attached to getting around in their cars, and
\nwho wants to get from A to B as quickly as they possibly can. They want to have parking that is
\neasy and they just want to maintain the way of life that we have fostered in North America for many years.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> So part of the challenge is to start structuring our built environment so that the car is not
\nthe best choice?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> Yes, and doing that in a way that recognizes that many people still believe that the car
\nis the only mode of accessible transportation. If people can't walk or bike, then they have to
\ndrive. I don't think that is true. I think we can be a lot more creative in our solutions. But the
\ndefault is, \u201cI'm 85 years old, I have driven a car all my life, I want to go watch my grandchild play
\nsoccer in a park, I can't walk there, I want to be able to drive there,\u201d and that is understandable. I
\nthink we have to listen to people and understand what their concerns are, but this is just not a
\nsustainable way for us to keep moving forward, with the car as the default mode of
\ntransportation. It is just going to be a disaster for our planet.
\nOf course, there are other things we can do too, but this is one thing that is well within our
\nmeans. The other thing to remember is that active transportation is more equitable for people
\nwho can't afford to drive a car. Active transportation is better for people. When kids walk to
\nschool they arrive at school more ready to learn because they have gotten a bit of exercise and
\nsome time to leave their house to get to school on the way. If you watch kids walk down the
\nstreet, they look at the trees, they look at the flowers, they pet the dogs, they do all sorts of
\nthings on their way to school. So, although climate change is one super important aspect to this,
\nthere are many other benefits to individuals into society by trying to make us all less dependent
\non our cars.<\/p>\n

Emily<\/strong>: Is there anything else you would like to share today?<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> No. Thank you for doing this. It has been a real pleasure.<\/p>\n

Emily:<\/strong> Thank you so much for your time and sharing your wisdom.<\/p>\n