Lauri Friesen

you feel comfortable riding on the road with traffic?

No, that is the reason I gave up bicycling a long time ago. While Edmonton has a terrific trail system, I was away from bicycling so long, that I find it too uncomfortable to do for exercise.

Do you feel that students are comfortable cycling (for at least part of their trip) to school? If not, why?

I can’t imagine that they are, no. The sidewalks are crowded, not to mention illegal to use, during their times of travel and the roads are just plain dangerous for children, under 14 years of age, to ride on.

What would you change to make cyclists feel more confident?

I would have the city pass a bylaw making it mandatory for children under 14 to ride on sidewalks, and require all future building and refurbishment of sidewalks make those walks sufficiently broad.

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?

I would provide secure bicycle lock ups at schools for those who choose to ride and would encourage others to walk from home or disembark from their vehicles several blocks away from school (and vice versa for the trip home.)

How will you engage parents, principals and administrators to make health a priority, especially in regards to active transportation?

I think that there are numerous government and community organization initiatives and activities every year that could be actively promoted by schools.

What policies and practices need to be changed or created to achieve this goal?

Participation in activities is an individual decision, but schools can make changes, e.g. keeping students’ and staff members’s bicycles secure from theft and vandalism, that will make that decision easier.

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?

As noted above, I think students and staff members could be encouraged to disembark (and vice versa) at a distance from the school in order to get some physical activity built into their morning and afternoon commutes.

School closures discourage active transportation by increasing travel distances. Would you encourage study of the student health (and correlated academic) consequences of school closures?

I would include any study results in advocacy on behalf of keeping schools open, but I would not support using school funding for such studies.

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?

I would have to know more about the liabilities and staffing requirements before I could comment on school utilization for other purposes.

Do the schools in your ward have adequate, secure bicycle parking?

I don’t know.

What kind of education programs would you engage in to encourage effective cycling?

It may be possible to include it in health or physical education courses already offered.

What would you do to discourage students being dropped-off/picked-up in private vehicles?

I think having safe bicycling routes and supervised walking groups could achieve that. Of course, all of this is predicated on parents and students being willing to make changes in their own lives and schedules.