500 wanted for Saskatoon bus rapid transit study

As Saskatoon lurches toward a new bus rapid transit system designed to meet the public transportation needs of a growing city, many questions linger.

We don't have a very clear hypothesis on whether these types of bus rapid transit systems can increase social participation or well-being.- Daniel Fuller

But Daniel Fuller with the Interventions, Research and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT), a group of scientists, urban plannersand citizens, has a unique query.

"What might be the potential health outcomes?"

Fuller and INTERACT want to conduct a five year study to find out.

"There haven't been a whole lot of studies done where we can get detailed data on people's behaviours," he told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

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Let's get physical

Fuller and his team want to look not only at whether bus rapid transit can help people become more active, but also well-beingand measure social participation.

"Our guess or hypothesis is that physical activity will increase, particularly for people that adopt the bus rapid transit system or who continue to use transit."

On the more esoteric aspects of the study, Fuller said the outcome anyone's guess.

"We are sort of open to interpreting the data so we don't have a very clear hypothesis on whether these types of bus rapid transit systems can increase social participation or well-being, there's not very much literature out there to give us one direction or the other."

INTERACT would like to find 500 people to take part in the five-year study. The data will be collected, Fuller said, through online surveys and by using a mobile smartphone app or wearable device.

Infrastructure value added

Fuller said INTERACT thinks that as cities like Saskatoon embark on expensive and sometimes contentious infrastructure projects, such as bike lanes, or better public transit,it would be beneficial if part of the public discourse included a project's impact on health and that it be backed up with hard data.

"All of these changes that we are making to the environment, I guess, have consequences and are political decisions, so if we can have evidence to show that there are not only mobility impacts and sustainability impacts, but also health impacts, that sort of makes a stronger case for implementing these kinds of infrastructures."

If public good is not enough to motivate people, Fuller said there are gift cards and prizes.