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Your Health
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Adding active transportation to your daily routine
Interested in using active transportation to get around, but not sure you can make it work? Winnipeg in motion may be able to help. The in motion team includes three people at different stages of life who have found ways to add active transportation solutions into their daily routine. Here is a look at some of the challenges they faced in joining the active transportation movement - and how they overcame them.
Deanna
Profile
- 30, married, no kids, no dogs
Distance
Issues
- No shower at work.
- Direct route to work has heavy vehicle traffic.
- Office is not on a convenient bus route.
- Off-site meetings during the day.
Solutions & Successes
- Cycle slower in the morning to minimize sweating. Keep a facecloth and towel at work.
- Carry change of clothes and lunch in panniers on the side
of my bike - much better than carrying a back pack.
- Found a more enjoyable cycling route down side streets without adding much more travel time.
- Walking in the winter is faster than taking the two buses to my office.
- Walk or bus to work meetings downtown.
- Choosing to walk or cycle has allowed us to stay with only one family car.
- Walking to the grocery store (1.5 km) helps us stick to what is "needed" on our list, so our bags aren't too heavy.
- Walking to the coffee shop or out for dinner and a movie
are our favourite date night activities.
Kristine
Profile
- 38, married, mother of two young children, ages three and five, and a dog.
Distance
Issues
- Busy schedule dropping off and picking up kids from school and daycare.
- Off-site work meetings.
- Children of different ages, which means they walk at very different speeds.
- Grocery shopping for a
family - nearest store is 3 kilometres away and across a major highway.
Solutions & Successes
- Work with family, friends and other parents to car pool and share pick-up and drop-offs, allowing me to bike to work more often.
- Compromise when short on time - put my bike in the car, drive to drop my kids off, park part way to work, and cycle the rest of the way.
- Drive to work and walk to meetings within 3 km.
- Use AT to go to the corner store or local park - my husband and I walk, my older daughter "scoots" and my younger daughter bikes to keep up with the scooter.
- Use a bike trailer to haul groceries home from the market.
Jan
Profile
- 55, married, mother of 2 adult children, 3 grandchildren
Distance
Issues
- Arriving at work with bad "helmet" hair.
- Wrinkly business clothes.
- Getting to and from meetings in business clothes.
- Carrying groceries home on a bike.
- Staying safe while actively transporting grandchildren.
Solutions & Successes
- Keep curling iron at the office.
- Wear biking clothes to work.
- Carry business clothes in bike panniers and keep a small travel iron at the office.
- Walk to meetings downtown (2 km) or combine walking and busing.
- Use a bike trailer for shopping.
- Use the new bike pathways (which we are fortunate to have) to pull our grandchildren in a chariot to Assiniboine Park (8.3 km), Fort Whyte (3.3 km).
Back to "Bike, walk, roll!"
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About Wave
Wave is published six times a year by the Winnipeg Health Region in cooperation with the Winnipeg Free Press. It is available at newsstands, hospitals and clinics throughout Winnipeg, as well as McNally Robinson Books.
Read the May / June 2010 issue of Wave |
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