Children’s mobility needs and barriers Ron Buliung’s research focus

Standing outside Sid Smith
Professor Ron Buliung (Photo: Romi Levine)

U of T’s Ron Buliung helps make kids’ trips to school more active and accessible with help from public funding

Posted December 18, 2017 by Romi Levine

Ever since he was a child and first learned how to ride a bike, it’s been hard to slow down Ron Buliung.

Now a professor of geography and planning at U of T Mississauga, Buliung is an avid cyclist. He is also committed to finding ways to help kids become more active.

For almost a decade, with the help of public funding, Buliung has been looking at how children get to and from school.

“I wanted to hear the voices of kids and help to bring their voices into the conversation about city-building in Toronto, but also across the region,” he says.

Backed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Buliung and two U of T researchers from the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, Associate Professor Caroline Fusco and Professor Guy Faulkner, talked to kids and their families across the Greater Toronto Area about the social and environmental factors that affect school travel. (Faulkner is now at the University of British Columbia.)

“We think about childhood as the time in your life when you learn foundational skills,” says Buliung. “There’s an opportunity there for children to engage with their environment in different ways and acquire the skills that allow them to incorporate, if it’s physically possible, walking, cycling and other things into the set of alternatives that are available to them for moving around.”

His research into kids’ commutes continued with funding from Metrolinx, Southern Ontario’s transportation planning agency. The study showed that more than twice the number of students are now driven to and from school compared with 25 years ago.

Metrolinx is aiming to get 60 per cent of kids to walk or bike to school by 2031 – a goal Buliung’s research will help to achieve.

“This research increased our understanding of children’s mobility needs and barriers, helping Metrolinx and its partners to knowledgeably focus programs in the right areas,” says Leslie Woo, chief planning officer at Metrolinx.

Buliung’s research also provides evidence that assists the Toronto District School Board’s promotion of safe, active and sustainable school travel, says Ryan Bird, TDSB’s manager of corporate and social media relations.

“We know that those who use active and sustainable modes of transportation experience benefits to mental and physical health and well-being, are better prepared to learn and work and are more connected to their communities,” he says.

Buliung says he wants his research to continue to inspire change in cities.

“To the extent possible, I’m trying to produce knowledge that can be the foundation for constructing interventions and policies to make our cities better for people.”

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This is an excerpt – read the full story on U of T News.