Saskatoon
Recruitment in progress
Your city and your health are more connected than you think.
Cities across Canada, including Saskatoon, are making major investments in new infrastructure, like an expanding transit network and vibrant public spaces, to improve urban living. These developments aim to reduce traffic congestion, promote sustainability, and enhance quality of life. With over 80% of Canadians living in urban areas, the impact of these changes could be profound. However, we still need to understand how these investments shape our health and well-being. Can improved infrastructure lead to more physical activity, well-being, and social connectedness? Are all residents benefiting, or are some being left behind?
Help us discover how we can build healthier, happier, and more connected cities.
INTERACT is bringing together thousands of people in cities across Canada to study the health impacts of sustainable infrastructure. In Saskatoon, we’re focusing on the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which is a $250M investment into a 38-km transit network. With 15% of the city’s new housing set to be within these transit corridors, we want to understand how this infrastructure will affect daily life and health. Participation in this local research is an opportunity to make your voice heard and contribute to innovative community design in Saskatoon and beyond.
Join our study, Saskatoon!
Saskatoon’s future transit network is set to transform how people move around the city. But will these changes make us healthier and happier? Who will use the new transit infrastructure, and who will benefit?
We’re inviting hundreds of residents to help us find out.
Ready for the next round?
If you participated in a previous wave of data collection (in 2018, 2020, or 2022), welcome back! We want to know what’s changed. Sharing your data over time is powerful because it allows us to study cause and effects.
Ready for the next round? Click below to sign-in to our survey portal with the email you used last time.
What will I do?
Read the consent form
Review the study details and answer a few questions to confirm you are eligible for the study.
Complete a short survey
The online 20-minute survey will cover your transportation habits, health, and neighbourhood. If you don’t have access to a computer or a smartphone, our team can ask you the questions over the phone or in person.
Be entered into a prize draw
You will automatically be entered for a chance to win one of five $100 gift cards or our grand prize—a $500 gift card—both to a retailer of your choice.
Optional activities
- Refer friends and receive up to $20 in e-gift cards as a thank you. When your friend and you complete the Health survey (that’s the one after we determine your eligibility), we’ll send you a $10 e-gift card. You can refer as many people as you like, you’ll receive a maximum of $20 in e-gift cards for helping us spread the word!
- Join the study’s bonus activities. You can choose to complete an extra survey about the places you visit, download an app to share travel and physical activity data through your mobile phone for 30 days. This part is totally optional. There’s no data plan required. For every extra activity you complete, you will receive a bonus entry for the prize draw.
What are the benefits?
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Contribute data that can help the City of Saskatoon make its next planning decisions
- Join thousands of people across Canada who are sharing how changes in their neighbourhood impacts their day-to-day routines and overall health and well-being
- By joining, you will automatically be entered into a prize draw for one of five $100 gift cards or the grand prize of a $500 gift card, each to a retailer of your choice
- Choose how much data you want to share. Participation is easy and flexible
Who can participate?
We’re looking to hear from all kinds of Saskatonians not just people who ride the bus! Tell us how you get around the city, whether that includes the bus or not. You are eligible if:
- You are an adult (18+)
- You live within 800 meters of the proposed bus rapid transit corridors OR ride the bus at least once a month
- You don’t plan to move away in the next two years
- You read and understand English well enough to complete a 20-minute survey
To get the full picture of who is using and benefiting from neighbourhood changes, our research needs to include as many different voices as possible. We welcome participation from people who have been historically left out of research and city planning, including Indigenous people, people of colour, newcomers, residents living on lower incomes, and persons with disabilities.
If you would like to join the study but face barriers to participating, please contact us.
Need more information?
- Reach out to our study coordinator Nazanin at saskatoon@teaminteract.ca
- Learn more about INTERACT
- Find out about the Bus Rapid Transit Network
- Check out our FAQ for participants
Funding and partners: This research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We partner with the City of Saskatoon and Saskatoon Transit to maximize the impact of our work.
The intervention
Saskatoon is building a $250M Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system along three major roadways. Major route and schedule changes were implemented in 2018 and 2019. A functional plan for the system was approved by City Council in April 2019. In 2020, Council endorsed the Corridor Transformation Plan, which directs areas for future growth, based on four guiding principles, focused on Transit-Oriented Development, Land Use, Transit Villages and Public Realm Principles – focused on creating public streets and spaces that are visually appealing, safe, inviting, universally accessible and livable on a year-round basis.
Learn more about Saskatoon’s proposed transit network redesign.
Insights from the data
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have heard about the BRT corridors in Saskatoon
%
enjoy using public transit in Saskatoon
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