| Candidates | ||||
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| Catholic Separate School District Ward 73 (map) |
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Information about Cindy Olsen
| Ward | Catholic Separate School District Ward 73 |
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| Website | http://cindyolsen.net/home.cfm |
| Platform | (see website) |
| meartho@telus.net |
| Inquiry (sent on September 17, 2010) | Hello Cindy Olsen, I am living in Ward 73, and would like to bring your attention to cycling in this city. It should be safe, especially for commuters, like students of this city. I would like you to advocate for safe bicycling by supporting of bike lanes painted on busy streets, and having separate bicycle lanes with their own traffic lights, on very busy roads, like 97th Street. Parking for bicycles should also be safe, secure parking around LRT and Transit stations should be made available.
… (show more)More people bicycling would make the air cleaner, people healthier, the roads lasting longer, at least 265 days of the year. Are you also a bicyclist? We would like to have a photo of yourself on your bike. Thank you for taking the time, JS |
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| Inquiry (sent on October 1, 2010) | Cycling Issues in Edmonton Schools Questionnaire |
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| Response | 1. Do you walk or ride a bicycle? For leisure? Exercise? Commuting? How often? I walk all the time and ride my bike at least once a day. I do this for leisure, stress reduction and exercise. I try to fit tasks into my bike rides and walks (going to the library, shoping, bank etc) but unfortunately like most communities now, services are spread out and not in reasonable commuting distance. My husband is actually doing a lot of his brochure drops for this election by bike, while I am walking and door knocking
… (show more)2. Do you feel comfortable riding on the road with traffic? Not at all a. Do you feel that students are comfortable cycling (for at least part of their trip) to school? If not, why? What would you change to make cyclists feel more confident? If schools are community schools and can be accessed by community roads not arterial or collector roadways its OK. We need to support community schools and we need to support bike lanes 3. Numerous studies have established the relationship between increased physical activity and better academic achievement. As trustee, what specific actions will you take to encourage active transportation among students and staff? As a trustee for ward 73 I support and advocate for community schools so that children and parents could ride bikes or walk to schools. I had 4 schools in my ward up for review for closure. By working with the community all 4 remain open with increased enrollments. I also encourage local field trips so students could walk. One fear parents have is of their kids walking to school alone and being accosted by strangers. One strategy to alleviate this fear would be to organize a “walking bus”. Parents and kids could take turns walking to school by a specific route which picks kids up along the route so that they are not walking alone. There is safety in numbers 4. How will you engage parents, principals and administrators to make health a priority, especially in regards to active transportation? We have policies which make health a priority a. What policies and practices need to be changed or created to achieve this goal? We need to work with the city to make public transportation more accessible, safe and rider friendly for children b. Because of the open-boundary, program-based school system in Edmonton, many students travel long distances to school. How would you encourage active transportation given this fact? I have facilitated meetings between parent councils, ward councilors, police , and administration to discuss and encourage active transportation strategies 5. School closures discourage active transportation by increasing travel distances. Would you encourage study of the student health (and correlated academic) consequences of school closures? Yes definitely. I am a strong advocate for community schools and walk able neighborhoods a. An initiative in Nova Scotia, which included opening school gyms after hours for non-competitive sport activities, saw a 72% reduction in obesity rates. What innovative ways would you propose to increase school utilization and physical activity? We as well have a joint use policy which opens our facilities to the public after hours. We also have strong partnerships with many not for profit agencies that increases school utilization and physical activity 6. Do the schools in your ward have adequate, secure bicycle parking? I think so in ward 73 anyway 7. What kind of education programs would you engage in to encourage effective cycling? We encourage cycling as an activity in health and physed. Unfortunately many students in this ward don’t even have bikes, sometimes because they are unable to afford them. I don’t know if Sport Central offers bikes but if they don’t maybe they should 8. What would you do to discourage students being dropped-off/picked-up in private vehicles? I can advocate for community schools and walk able neighborhoods 9. Do you have a recent photo of yourself riding your bicycle? Please send it to us digitally! No picture – haven’t had a camera for about a year Thank you for taking the time to respond to our questionnaire, and good luck in your campaign! Thank you Chris |
