capacity-capacite.ca

CapaCITY

ABOUT US

We are a team of researchers lead by Dr. Meghan Winters (Simon Fraser University), Dr. Marie-Soleil Cloutier (Institut national de la recherche scientifique), Dr. Daniel Fuller (University of Saskatchewan), city planners and community groups, looking to catalyze the implementation of sustainable transportation interventions to support health, mobility, and equity outcomes in cities across Canada.

CONTEXT

Active transport and public transit are critical to providing accessible and affordable physical activity as part of everyday life, and improving population health. However, the car remains dominant, with walking, cycling, and public transit rates low, in part due to widespread concerns about safety as well as a lack of supportive infrastructure. Without major changes, cities will struggle to meet ambitious targets for sustainable transportation set in response to congestion and the climate crisis. 

The window for action is now, as the federal government launches its first National Active Transportation Strategy, with $400M for active transportation infrastructure, and $14.9 B for public transit over the next 8 years. However, there is very limited research examining how these large-scale healthy cities investments go from funding programs to actual changes in the urban environment. Implementation science allows us to understand methods and approaches to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based practice and research into regular use by practitioners and policymakers. The field of implementation science seeks to systematically close the gap between what we know and what we do (often referred to as the know-do gap) by identifying and addressing the barriers that slow or halt the uptake of proven health interventions and evidence-based practices.

OUR PROPOSAL

Our overall goal is to catalyze the implementation of sustainable transportation interventions to support health, mobility, and equity outcomes in cities. We primarily focus on two pillars of sustainable transportation interventions – All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bicycle networks and speed management interventions – which serve as implementation science case studies. Our Canadian and Australian team will extend intersectoral partnerships, build capacity, and develop tools to advance healthy cities implementation science, working toward this goal through the following objectives:

 

Objective 1

Document the implementation process and outcomes of two types of sustainable transportation interventions

 

Team Leads
Objective 2

Examine the equity, health, and mobility impacts of these sustainable transportation interventions, both within and between cities

 

Team Leads
Objective 3

Advance implementation science by developing an evidence-based, equity focused, sustainable transportation implementation framework

 

Team Leads
Objective 4

Facilitate scale up and scale out of sustainable transportation interventions by developing tools for stakeholders and building capacity

 

Team Leads

Our Partner Cities

Co-Applicants
  • Sara Kirk, Dalhousie University (Principal Applicant)
  • Ben Beck, Monash University (Australian Lead)
  • Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, Simon Fraser University
  • Audrey Giles, University of Ottawa / Université d’Ottawa
  • Kevin Manaugh, McGill University / Université McGill
  • David Wachsmuth, McGill University / Université McGill
  • Raktim Mitra, Toronto Metropolitan University
  • Alexander Soucy, Saint Mary’s University
  • David Whitehurst, Simon Fraser University
  • Scott Bell, University of Saskatchewan
  • Ehab Diab, University of Saskatchewan
  • Patricia Collins, Queen’s University
  • Ian Pike, University of British Columbia
  • Brent Hagel, University of Calgary
  • Brice Batomen Kuimi, University of Toronto
  • Ugo Lachapelle, Université de Québec à Montréal
  • Nazeem Muhajarine, University of Saskatchewan
  • Evelyne de Leeuw, University of New South Wales
  • Helen Skouteris, Monash University
  • Rob Raven, Monash University
  • Patrick Harris, University of New South Wales
  • Darshini Ayton, Monash University
  • Brian (Jinwoo) Lee, University of New South Wales
  • Christopher Pettit, University of New South Wales
  • Michael Harris, University of New South Wales
  • Jeff Brubacher, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine
  • Tate HubkaRao, University of Calgary
  • Meridith Sones, Simon Fraser University
  • Owen Waygood, Polytechnique Montréal
  • Sébastien Lord, Université Laval
  • Marie-Ève Couture-Ménard, Université de Sherbrooke
  • Lise Gauvin, Centre de recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM)
  • Trisalyn Nelson, UC Santa Barbara
  • Sandra Breux, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Christoph Becker, University of Toronto
Research Collaborators