Thanks for attending the 2018 Atlantic Active Transportation Summit. Below you will find a number of the speaker’s presentations, survey results, and other valuable resources. We hope that a second regional summit will take place in a couple of years to help build on the momentum created here.
A video recap of the Summit:
Speaker’s Presentations:
| Wednesday, May 23 | ||
| Opening Panel | Kevin Flynn, Bicycle Nfld | |
| Mana Wareham, NS Dept of Energy | ||
| Francois Caron, PEI Dept of Health & Wellness | ||
| Olivia Sanford, NB Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health | ||
| Concurrent Sessions A | ||
| A. Active Transportation and Accessibility | ||
| Johanna Stork, Vision Loss Rehab NS | ||
| B. Perspectives from First Nations and African Nova Scotian Communities | ||
| Tammy Ewing, East Preston Family Resource Centre | ||
| Natalia Diaz-Insense, Ecology Action Centre | ||
| Krista Devoe, Membertou First Nation, NS | ||
| C. Piloting Bike Infrastructure | ||
| Jon Lewis, City of Fredericton, NB | n/a | |
| Kate Whitfield, Alta Planning and Design | ||
| Mike Connolly, Cycling PEI | n/a | |
| Concurrent Sessions B | ||
| A. Complete Streets | ||
| Tom Sorrentino, Charlotte, North Carolina | ||
| Mayor Brenda Chisholm, Town of Port Hawksbury, NS | ||
| B. The Economic Case for Walkability | ||
| Neil Lovitt, Turner Drake & Partners | ||
| Concurrent Sessions C | ||
| A. Successful Approaches to Improving Active Transportation | ||
| Susan Sauvé, City of Peterborough, ON | ||
| B. Evidence for Influencing Change in a Data Driven World | ||
| Dr. Ahsan Habib, DalTRAC | n/a | |
| Nora Dickson, Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Plenary | ||
| Planning and Design in Mid-Sized Atlantic Communities | ||
| Mackenzie Childs, Town of Bridgewater, NS | ||
| Olivia White, Master of Urban Planning Candidate, McGill Univ. | ||
| Move It! An Active Transportation Presentation Series (@ Seven Bays Bouldering) | ||
| Claire Maclean | Using Social Marketing to Encourage Walking in Cape Breton | |
| Isabelle Ouellette | The Barriers to Strategies for Multi Modal Transportation within and between Communities in New Brunswick | |
| Ogheneruemu Ememoh | The Built Environment and its Influence on Physical Activity among African Nova Scotians | |
| Chad Leclair | Collisions Tracking Project | |
| Susanna Fuller | The Blue Route and Bicycle Friendly Certification Program | |
| Tim Callanan and Erin Bray | Carsharing and Transit are Catalysts for Active Transportation | |
| Thursday, May 24 | ||
| Cultivating a Community of Practice | ||
| Eliza Jackson (EAC) and Bekah Craik (West Hants) | ||
| Dr Sara Kirk, Dalhousie University | ||
| Kate Whitfield, Alta Planning and Design | ||
| Greenways and Trails in Nova Scotia | ||
| Barbara Bishop, Paradise Active Healthy Living Society | ||
| Patricia Richards and Mona Bordage, Shore Active Transportation Association | ||
| Rick Muzyk, St Margaret’s Bay Area Rails to Trails Association | ||
| Paul Euloth, Nova Scotia Greenways | ||
Photos from the Summit:
Summary Survey Statistics:
Roughly 27% of delegates, including speakers, completed the survey for evaluating their experience at the Summit. Respondents rated their satisfaction 8 ½ out of 10 for the experience overall. Most respondents (87%) either agreed or strongly agreed the Summit’s seven goals.
The sessions located in the library were rated well at 90% of respondents having either agreed or strongly agreed to the three criteria (relevant and new information, topic variety, Q&A time). Most respondents (89%) who attended the evening session either agreed or strongly agreed the presentations were interesting and relevant. Respondents who participated in mobile workshops rated them very well. The workshops Walk This Way: Making it Safer and Easier to Walk and Grassroots Transportation Initiatives left a particular impression on participants given their 100% rating on all three evaluation criteria.
As for the speakers, most respondents (36% response rate) strongly agreed to the criteria rating their experience.
Done Well
“One of the most well organized conferences I’ve had the pleasure of presenting at. Communications were clear and detailed.”
“As an inexperience city cyclist, the leaders and participants were very, very encouraging. I highly recommend similar workshops that offer an experiential learning opportunity to participants.”
Room to Improve
“Although knowledge and information delivered throughout the summit was excellent, I still feel there was a lack of information in regards to active transportation in rural communities (populations 1000 or less).”
“Delegates were heavily NS based and conversations kept veering back to what happens in NS.”
Community of Practice
The concept of a community of practice is widely used in many sectors and is defined as “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. The idea behind a community of practice is that by coming together, practitioners will be exposed to learnings that shape their individual work in their respective communities. Click here for the Community of Practice report.
Summit 2020?
Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) and the Nova Scotia summit organizing committee is looking for another Atlantic province to organize the next Summit, ideally in 2020. Most survey respondents (87% yes; 13% maybe) would consider attending another Summit in Atlantic Canada. The groundwork from this Summit can ease organizing the next Summit such as communication channels (e.g. website, social media, photos), planning tools and information. To enquire, please contact NSFM’s Active Transportation Committee Chair, Gord Tate at gtate@chester.ca.
Atlantic Active Transportation Summit 
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