Sustainable Transportation: The Cities of Tomorrow
Why do people take the bus? Walk to the corner store? Drive to work?
How does city planning impact travel patterns, physical activity, and
ultimately, public health?
Researchers at UBC are busy unraveling these relationships, in large part thanks to the J. Armand Bombardier Foundation's support of the J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Urban Transportation .
Dr. Lawrence Frank was appointed in 2003 as the inaugural Bombardier Chair, a post that drives integral research at UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
Dr.
Frank's research looks at the way land use and urban design influence
how people travel. The findings will encourage new directions in city
planning across North America and throughout the globe.
Before
joining UBC, Dr. Frank oversaw nearly $6 million in funded research in
urban design and transportation, and remains at the forefront of the
investigation into the relationship between community design, physical
activity and public health. He also recently co-authored Health and
Community Design: The Impacts of the Built Environment on Physical
Activity. A second book - Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing,
Planning and Building for Health Communities - was published in summer
2004.
Through the Bombardier Chair, Dr. Frank
continues his pioneering exploration of the environmental, economic and
social dimensions of sustainable transport systems.