Gussy’s Blog

I went to an active transportation forum tonight. Seeing that i can’t sleep and am excited about it, i thought that i would write about what i know and learnt tonight. So what is active transportation? Well it is basically anything that uses the body for motion, walking, riding, skateboarding, roller blading, wheelchairs etc.

The idea is to create communities that can use these functions much more easily and thus rely less on the cost and associated problems related with car usage. It’s not about saying that cars are bad, boo cars. It is about saying, hey this lifestyle that i lead is unhealthy. I should be getting at least 30 mins of exercise a day but I’m only getting 2 mins. I need to do something about that. It is about making us less reliant on oil and more healthy and dependable on ourselves. I like the idea, it sure makes me think that it can be done, not only that, it must be done. The example was errands, how many times have your driven to the shops, only a few blocks away instead of riding, or walking? Sure it was convenient but how much CO2 did you put out into the environment, to save you that 10 mins?

The average American walks 800 metres a day!

That is a stunning and shameful fact, Canada is not far off. So i am very interested in seeing how much I can do in Golden to change attitudes and regulations. What can be done to make this situation change? How can things in Golden change?

Studies were put forward stating that if nothing it done about this that the cost of helping all the people that are obese in relation to BMI (Body Mass Index) the health system is going to crash, along with everything else. It is not a matter of if’s it is a matter of whens.

Children need 90 mins of activity every day, yet somehow they don’t get it. Instead they get over 5 hours of TV a day. How does this add up? It doesn’t it just makes me wonder and resolvant to make sure my kids are fit and healthy regardless of where they live.

It does sound like a lot of dooms and glooms, but in reality, its the truth. The investment now is really a long life investment for the future. North America is 20-30 years behind Europe. There is lots more going on there about biking and active transport than is even being considered here.

To finish up i am giving you some links about Active Transportation, so you can see just how important and relevant it is today and in the future.

Active Transportation dot org

Public Health Canada

Travelsmart

It is has been quite the boring and uneventful week. Nothing so far has gone on. 1 thing that has occured is i went for a hike on Sunday. It was awesome fun, i will have to post some photos on Flickr some time soon. Once i get them off the camera. I went with Heather, up to Emerald Lake. It is an amazing lake, just like you would expect on a postcard. It is only around a 40min drive from my house too. Hehe, i love where i live. We then started the walk around the side of the lake, and ended up taking the walk upto the Emerald Basin, that is where there are large mountains, and coulairs etc. It really was nice, long way up too. We were estimating that we gained loads of elevation in our short walk. Around 200ft we think, maybe more. The pics tell a better story.

Heather and I had some good talks, just about random crap, and catching up. Something we hadn’t done in a long time. Both of us were quite busy over summer. Good thing i enjoy her company as a friend, cause i am going travelling with her around the world. Only 53 days till we leave!!! Woot!

The total hike took around 5hrs which isnt to bad, seeing that we had lunch and a look around, stopped to pick rasberries. We did only meet 1 other group of ppl on our trip up the mountain side. So cool. They had a dinner bell on, aka bear bell. We didn’t take any bear spray with us, maybe i should get some. I just think that if the bear is there, and wants to eat us. Nothing will stop him. So far i haven’t even been close to a bear. I make noise as i go along, so that should give them fair warning that im coming.

So that is my update for the last little while.