Active Travel for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet: A Toolkit for Health Professionals.

CAPE (Canadian Association for Physicians for the Environment) has released a new toolkit to help health professionals become advocates of active transportation and transit with their patients and in their communities.

The toolkit is designed with five stand-alone modules so people can focus on the ones of most interest to them.

• Module 1 describes the health, environmental and social benefits of active travel.
• Module 2 provides strategies to motivate patients to use active travel.
• Module 3 explains the links between active transportation and community design.
• Module 4, designed for health professionals in southern Ontario, focuses on Ontario’s Growth Plan and how it impacts active travel.
• Module 5 provides strategies for promoting change in one’s community.

The toolkit also includes two factsheets and brochures that health professionals can give to their patients, two backgrounders that can be used in meetings with the public or decision-makers, and a series of memes that can be used on Twitter or Facebook to make people think about the many benefits of walking, cycling, and transit for society as a whole.