test

Vancouver

Recruitment in progress

Your city and your health are more connected than you think.

Cities across Canada are making major investments in new infrastructure, like better transit and new cycling networks, to make it easier for people to get around without a car. These investments are designed to reduce traffic congestion and make city life more sustainable. But they could also shape our health and well-being. With over 80% of Canadians living in urban areas, the potential impact is huge. But there is a lot we still don’t know. Can building better infrastructure actually increase physical activity, well-being, and social connectedness? Does everyone benefit, or are some residents being left out?

Help us learn how to build healthy, happy, and connected cities.

INTERACT is bringing together thousands of people in cities across Canada to evaluate the health impacts of sustainable transportation infrastructure. In Vancouver, our team at SFU is inviting a diverse mix of residents from across the city to help us study the use and benefits of urban greenways. Greenways are paths that prioritize walking, rolling and cycling. They connect people and places and offer spaces to enjoy nature and socialize. Participation is easy and an opportunity to add your voice to innovative local research that aims to guide healthy and equitable community design in Vancouver, and beyond.

Join our study, Vancouver!

Greenways provide spaces to walk, bike, roll, and connect with neighbours and nature. Can they also make us healthier and happier? Who uses greenways, and who benefits? We’re uniting hundreds of Vancouverites to find out.

Ready to join the study? Click below to sign up and start the survey.

Sign up!

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.

Log in

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?

  • Contribute data that can help the City of Vancouver 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 Vancouverites, not just people who use and love greenways! Tell us how you get around the city, whether that includes a greenway or not. You are eligible if:

  • You are an adult (18+)
  • You live in the City of Vancouver and 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?

Funding and partners: This research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We partner with the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health to maximize the impact of our work.

%

of participants would use City Greenways more if they were car-free routes

participants use the most popular greenways on average 8 days a month during the spring summer and fall.

%

think that City Greenways are a very good idea

View summary report from 2022

The intervention

Vancouver’s City Greenways are routes that prioritise active transportation, expand urban recreational opportunities, and serve as high-quality linear public spaces. Popular routes such as the Arbutus and Central Valley Greenways link neighbourhoods across Vancouver and carry regional cycling traffic between Vancouver and neighbouring municipalities, like Burnaby and New Westminster. The City is working toward building an integrated city-wide network of 18 Greenways that will be within a 10-minute cycle or half-hour walk of every residence in Vancouver.

Learn more about Vancouver’s City Greenway program.