A Footprint oF Delight - Exploring Sustainable Happiness

The NCBW Forum is one of the oldest, most trusted publications covering the field of bicycle and pedestrian design issues. First published in 1977 as Bicycle Forum, the quarterly newsletter changed its name in 2001 to become the NCBW Forum. This was done partially in response to the broadening focus of the organization; the content now explicitly includes pedestrian-related articles, references, and news items.

In September, 2003, the NCBW Forum moved from a print publication available via subscription only to an on-line publication open to all. The articles compendium is joined with an online message area where people can post comments about articles, start new discussions, and search for archived articles and posts. John Williams, the long-time editor of the print version of the NCBW Forum, remains at the helm of our NCBW Forum.

March 2007

Children: A Critical Link for
Changing Driving Behaviour
BY CATHERINE O'BRIEN, PhD

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Reports from Transport Canada1, the
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy2, the
Centre for Sustainable Transportation3, and many others.

October 2006

A Footprint oF Delight - Exploring Sustainable Happiness
BY CATHERINE O'BRIEN, PhD

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During the summer of 2005, with the support and assistance of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, I launched the Delightful places Survey. It was distributed electronically to our networks around the world and we the survey was closed down once we received just over 200 responses. The survey was a preliminary step toward integrating insights on happiness from positive psychology with urban planning. We were curious to learn more about what contributes to individual and public happiness in the natural and built environment. The natural environment was included in order to capture the experience of delight that these areas offer, whether or not they exist within an urban area.

March 2005

Livable Streets for Schoolchildren
BY BRUCE S. APPLEYARD, MCP, AICP

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How do children view their world? What helps them connect with their environment and community? Or, perhaps more importantly, what gets in their way? These are questions that need to be addressed when working to make schools and neighborhoods safe and accessible for children.

Discussions of Safe Routes to School programs usually focus on the physical activity and safety benefits for children. But safe and livable neighborhood streets, with adequate facilities for walking, bicycling and traffic calming, can also help children develop a positive and holistic view of their communities.

January 2005

Planning Transportation For And With Children
BY CATHERINE O'BRIEN, PhD

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Communities that make special efforts to meet the needs of children will benefit as a whole. This is good news for advocates of bicycling and walking because many of the efforts to improve children's mobility involve creating more opportunities for active transportation, making neighborhoods safer for cycling and walking, and designing communities so that most destinations involve short trips that may be made by walking, cycling, skateboarding, and so on. Planning with youth contributes to a greater understanding of the social impacts and benefits of transportation. For example, in one community, once youth became involved in planning, adults realized that community design, transportation issues, and lack of attention to youth needs are important factors in making youth feel marginalized or included. With few places to travel, or few options for independent travel, youth described feeling bored, being harassed for "hanging out" on the streets, and the feeling that they are invisible, or worse unwanted.

NCBW Forum
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