The Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative has been working to make the city a place where people can get around more easily using the power of their bodies. Michael Haynes was here six years ago to help establish goals for the city to implement, and he returned for a new session with the same purpose, to look at ways to improve active transportation options in Yorkton.
Haynes says the goal of active transportation is to get people to move more in their every day lives, not just as a recreational activity, but as a way to get around to do daily business.
"A lot of what active transportation is about is creating options, so people can do it if they want," he says.
That was what inspired the initial workshop six years ago, and Haynes says that all of the suggestions seen during that time have been implemented since. He says that since the last time he was here there has been major changes in the number of ways people in the city can get around, and the focus on active transportation is getting attention nationally.
"As a matter of fact, Yorkton is being recognized as a community that leads in this, they've moved the bar quite a bit."
He says that overall he's impressed by the amount of progress there has been in the past six years.
"For a community this size in particular, there has been greater progress than just about anywhere I have known in Canada. You can compare it now to somewhere like Okotoks, which has been really well recognized as a sustainable community of a roughly similar size," Haynes notes.
The goal now is to find where to go next, Haynes says, and that is the purpose for these sessions, and to show what's happening in a larger context. With that, it will give the active transportation collaborative new goals and initiatives to try to implement.
He also says it's good to see the support through the community for the active transportation in the community. City council, the business community and the Active Transportation Collaborative itself should be commended, Haynes says, for working towards making Yorkton a more sustainable community. He says that working to improve the active transportation improves the quality of life, and notes that making Yorkton a place where people want to live could be a driving force behind growth in the area.
