La santé publique, un acteur majeur des politiques urbaines de transport actif ?

Les politiques urbaines qui encouragent les déplacements à pied et à vélo sont reconnues pour être potentiellement favorables à la santé. Pourtant, la recherche s’est peu intéressée au rôle des acteurs de santé publique dans l’émergence et la mise en œuvre des politiques de transport actif. L’article questionne ce rôle des acteurs de santé publique à partir des résultats d’une recherche comparative à Montréal et Toronto (1970-2016). Suivant le cadre théorique des coalitions de cause et à partir d’une analyse documentaire et d’entretiens semi-directifs, nous étudions les interactions des acteurs de santé publique et les valeurs de santé dans la politique. Nos résultats montrent le paradoxe de la présence des acteurs et des valeurs de santé dans l’émergence des politiques de transport actif, et de leur relative absence dans la mise en œuvre. Les résultats ouvrent une réflexion sur la contribution des acteurs de santé publique aux politiques urbaines.Urban policies that encourage walking or cycling to work are widely considered as healthy public policies given the benefits of increased physical activity, reduced traffic congestion and reduced air pollution. The difficulty for public health actors is that action to promote walking or cycling is largely outside their reach, for instance : building walking and cycling infrastructure (broader sidewalks, cycling lanes, and so on), improving access to public transit, or changing bylaws on maximum speed limits. These actions fall under the responsibility of transportation and urban planning sectors. In other words, creating healthy public policies requires that public health actors partner with actors from other sectors. In doing so, they are likely to come up against « politics and power games » (de Leeuw, 2017, p. 344). This paper explores what public health actors do to integrate a health perspective into urban policies for active transportation. As policy instruments fall under the responsibility of other sectors, what do they do? Are they limited to advocacy efforts? And how can these policy instruments be implemented when these other sectors are primarily concerned with something other than health? To answer these questions, this paper examines the role of public health actors in the process of leading two major Canadian cities, Montreal and Toronto, to develop active transportation policies (the policy emergence phase) and to implement these policies, including specific initiatives to change the built environment for active transportation (the implementation phase). We observe how public health actors, and in particular the local public health authorities, interact with actors from other sectors concerned with active transportation. We also consider how health knowledge and values are used in the legitimisation of active transportation policies. This focus on interactions and values stems from our use of an advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier & Weible, 2007). The methods include documentary analysis (official plans and documents related to active transportation) and semi-structured interviews (Montreal=20, Toronto=20) with key actors from the active transportation policy subsystem (in particular: municipal councillors and employees; public health actors, especially from local public health agencies; representatives from interest groups involved with active transportation). There are four main results from this study. Firstly, arguments for active transportation based on health benefits have circulated beyond the community of public health actors. Such arguments are found in the official plans stating the objectives of both cities’ active transportation policies; in rationales justifying the specific initiatives under study; and in the discourses of actors from other sectors. Secondly, public health actors spend considerable time and effort in the production and diffusion of knowledge regarding the intersections between transportation, urban planning and health. Based on this knowledge, they also adopt public positions on policy issues regarding active transportation. They are, however, largely absent from the implementation phase of the specific active transportation initiatives under study here (figure 1). Third, public health actors engage with actors from other policy sectors that share their values and vision regarding active transportation policies. This is especially true of their interactions with non-governmental organisations and university researchers. Lastly, it is more difficult for them to establish interactions with actors that do not share their values and visions regarding preferred policies, especially with municipal transportation services. In conclusion, our results suggest that the inclusion of health knowledge and values into official plans that state the objectives of active transportation policies is not sufficient to determine that health has become part of active transportation policies. Constitutional rules that define how responsibilities are shared between sectors, and the definition of a policy sector by a dominant profession and a dominant policy paradigm, limit the extent to which public health actors may shape active transportation policies so that they become healthier urban policies

Public health, a major player in urban active transport policies?

Urban policies that encourage walking or cycling to work are widely considered as healthy public policies given the benefits of increased physical activity, reduced traffic congestion and reduced air pollution. The difficulty for public health actors is that action to promote walking or cycling is largely outside their reach, for instance : building walking and cycling infrastructure (broader sidewalks, cycling lanes, and so on), improving access to public transit, or changing bylaws on maxim..

The Post-Intervention Persistence of Energy Conservation Behaviors: An Evaluation of the ‘Start Green’ Program

For more than four decades, behavioral intervention programs informed by psychology have been employed to increase pro-environmental behaviors. However, there has been little evidence for the post-intervention durability of target behaviors. The few studies that have conducted such evaluations have found that improvements often return to baseline levels post-intervention. This study evaluated the durability of home energy conservation behaviors before, during, and after a community based multi-technique intervention program, and examined the relationship between behavioral durability and the perceived importance, convenience and family norms of each behavior, as well as generalized pro-conservation decision making. The results show increased frequency in target behaviors that remain elevated seven months post-intervention. While the reported generalization of pro-conservation decision-making consistently increased during the study, perceived importance, convenience, and family norms of target conservation behaviors were largely unaffected. In addition, the few significant alterations in these perceptions were found to be due to increases during the post-intervention period only, indicating that they are not necessary pre-requisites for durable behavior change. These results show that a well designed community based intervention can have direct impacts on target behaviors that persist beyond its termination

Shifts in environmental governance in Canada: how are citizen environment groups to respond?

During a period when the relationship between government agencies and citizen environmental monitoring activities is shifting, this paper examines the nature of the relationship between government and citizen stewardship, by describing some citizen monitoring initiatives in Ontario, Canada. The authors begin by characterizing the changing nature of environmental governance by focusing specifically on the complexity surrounding the relationship between government administrative reform, demands for improved and increased environmental monitoring, and the role and function of citizens in monitoring activities. Then, building on the experience of one citizen-based environmental organization, Citizens' Environment Watch, as well as on two other local examples, they document possible new forms of collaboration that retain government responsibility while building community authority, knowledge, and power to improve local environmental quality. Suggested remedies include a recognition and public articulation of what government should do and what it does not do. In the case of the latter, government should commit to provide support for citizen monitoring efforts, and to heed the work of volunteer monitors. Finally, government needs to follow up on concerns about degraded environmental quality raised by local citizens through strong investigative and enforcement responses.

Economic Impact Study of Bike Lanes in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods

This work was commissioned by the City of Toronto, the Metcalf Foundation, the Bloor Annex BIA and the Korea Town BIA