Active Transportation in Ottawa, Canada. The Challenge of Enduring Political Obstacles
The promotion of active transportation (AT) – utilitarian trips including walking, cycling, and public transit use – represents an opportunity for increasing physical activity. Ottawa is a noteworthy example of success when measured by AT rates and assessed in a North American context. At the same time, its AT performance is weak in comparison with those of the best international cities, suggesting that its failure to achieve higher AT rates may be related to factors associated with its North American location. Through an application of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), a formal policy process theory from political science, this paper highlights the importance of a category of enduring political obstacles (the ACF’s relatively stable parameters) with respect to long-term AT promotion efforts in Ottawa. Individual interviews were conducted with 21 Ottawa-based AT experts. Document review was employed as a secondary method. Overall, the research indicates challenges related to Ottawa’s North American sociocultural context and its political system constituted very strong obstacles to AT promotion. Viewed from the perspective of attempts to promote health in urban settings, these findings suggest that in jurisdictions subject to challenges similar to those identified for AT promotion in Ottawa, health-based actors should be encouraged to direct advocacy efforts to areas not normally within their traditional domains. In the case of AT in Ottawa, these might include, for example, the municipal revenue system and traditions within the field of transportation and land use planning.