Media Clipping – May 2, 2007, The Chronicle-Herald

Investing in fitness

With health costs rising, a majority wants more biking, hiking trails

By GORDIE SUTHERLAND Sports Reporter/WINNING WAYS

Dave MacKinnon puts a twist on the park-and-ride concept.

Every work day, all year long, MacKinnon drives from Nine Mile River, near Elmsdale, to a parking lot by Mic Mac Mall, but instead of catching the bus he hops on his bike.

He rides the rest of the distance to his Halifax office on Terminal Road, where he works in protected-areas planning for the provincial Environment Department.

MacKinnon, 42, has been doing the same commute since 2001.

At first, he wanted to bike to save on gas consumption and avoid traffic. Those reasons still rate high, but he's come to appreciate the physical activity he gets from biking.

"It goes a long way," he said. "My commute is only 7 1/2 kilometres each way but there are some good hills and from time to time you have a head wind. So it's a good base. It works out to probably a total of 40 to 45 minutes of biking each day."

MacKinnon is in a select group, at least in these parts.

According to Statistics Canada Census data from 2001 just 0.6 per cent of Nova Scotia's employed labour force bicycled to work.

And a study by GPI Atlantic, commissioned for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia, identified transportation as one of four major areas in which people have the opportunity to be physically active during their day.

The report also says money invested in the right infrastructure can make active transportation more appealing to people.

And it doesn't stop there.

Leaving the car behind is also good for the environment.

And a more physically active community means an improvement in mental and physical health and a decrease in health care costs.

"The evidence is clear that increased physical activity would save the province millions of dollars," says the GPI Atlantic study. "It is estimated that physical inactivity in HRM costs the provincial health care system $16 million a year in hospital, physician and drug costs alone."

A CRA Atlantic survey conducted last fall for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia found that 82 per cent "strongly" or "somewhat" supported increased funding for health promotion strategies, including walking trails and biking paths.

Would wider sidewalks and better bike paths be more beneficial than a multi-million dollar stadium?

Laena Garrison certainly thinks so.

"The average person doesn't get their physical activity through sport," said Garrison, who works for the Ecology Action Centre, promoting sustainable transportation.

" . . . local streets are a very common place for engaging in physical activity. The safer we can make those local streets and the more walkable and bikeable we can make them, the better.

"Commuting to work is just one aspect. It can be about going to the gym, school or the store.

"We need to place an emphasis on infrastructure that supports, essentially, active transportation," said Clare O'Connor, the director of public affairs for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia who has a graduate degree in urban planning.

"We need to provide the ability for people to get around on foot or on wheels to the places they need to get to on a daily basis."

And there are no membership fees.

"To encourage people to be active, we have to be aware of some cost restrictions," O'Connor said. "Outdoor space is free."

Garrison said even steps such as marking more bike-friendly routes would help, adding Halifax lags behind cities like Vancouver in providing infrastructure for bikers.

As it is, MacKinnon has carefully created his route, sticking to wider streets.

He does use the Brunswick Street bike lane, often criticized because it doesn't have natural entry and exit points.

"I take what I can get at this point," he said.

"I'd agree that a lot of the parts of the city don't appear to be very safe for biking and I think you would have a lot more uptake if people had safer routes, especially the painted bike lanes. Even though not all drivers respect them all of the time, there's pretty good respect.

"The thing that has really helped is the bike deck on the (Macdonald) bridge. That's the nicest part of the ride now because there's no worry of being hit."

MacKinnon figures there's no more than 10 days in a year that he takes his car all the way to work.

"I think that anybody who tries it for a couple of weeks, they'll get addicted to it for the most part, as long as they have a safe route.

"That's good for everybody. People would be in better shape and there would be less traffic. It's nice to see more people out on bikes.

"It shows, especially on the bridge, that there is uptake when the city invests in the infrastructure."

(gsutherland@herald.ca)